(CNN) -- The amazing escape of three Cleveland women -- Amanda Berry, Georgina "Gina" DeJesus, and Michelle Knight -- exploded into the media amid sordid back stories of their captivity and gave life yet again to my own dark memories of captivity and despair.
At age 13, I, too, became the helpless victim of a sexually depraved monster, a vicious Internet predator who actively groomed me. Luring me from my home, he abducted me to Virginia where I was held captive in his basement dungeon.
For days, I was raped, beaten and tortured, and like an animal, chained to the floor by a locking dog collar. My abductor shared my degradation via streaming video, boasting online about the young girl he had taken to be his sex slave.
It was this very brazenness that would lead to my rescue, as one recipient of the live broadcast, afraid of his own involvement in the crime, scoured the newspaper and found my National Center for Missing and Exploited Children missing person flier. Seeing that my family and the FBI were searching for me, he used a pay phone to contact authorities.
This led the FBI to where I was being imprisoned. The chain was cut from my neck; I was set free and gifted with a second chance at life. Had that call not been made, or had the investigation taken only a bit longer, the monster would have most likely murdered me. Sadly, 74% of stranger-abducted children will be killed within the first three hours.
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