Kidnap victim struggles through recovery

It has been a hard road to recovery for 21-year-old Frank Klein of Cheyenne. He says he sometimes feels his recovery has been harder than going through what he did when he got his injuries.

Klein was visiting his sister at Sapp Bros. Big C Truck Stop east of Cheyenne at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 19, 1998, just before his life would change forever.

After leaving the truck stop, two men asked Klein for a ride to their disabled car and assistance in jump-starting it.

While Klein was driving them to the car, one of the men put a knife to Klein's throat and threatened to kill him. The two then ordered him to drive westbound on I-80.

In Utah, Klein said, he was duct-taped and placed in the vehicle's trunk. After spending some time there, Klein screamed and pleaded with them to let him out.

When the men eventually pulled him out, Klein said, they beat him on the head with the handle of a butcher knife.

Sometime later on the road again, the pair pulled into a rest stop near Beowawe, Nev. While one of them held Klein, the other slit his throat with the knife and stabbed him in the right shoulder. They left him in the trunk and drove a short distance off I-80.

They dropped Klein to the ground, kicked him into a ravine and buried him under snow, thinking he was dead.

After about a 10- to 20-minute wait, Klein managed to crawl out of the ravine with frozen hands and feet. Later, a man on a snow plow stopped to help him.

It was only a few hours later that Nevada law enforcement apprehended Billy Johnson and Jerry Lee Morgan. Although the two are expected to begin trial May 18 for felony kidnapping, the trial could be postponed until July 13.

Klein said he hopes the trial will not be delayed as it has been in recent months. He wants to testify against the two men so he can go on with his life. He also says he wants to make sure Johnson and Morgan never harm another person.

Most of Klein's injuries have healed, he says, although he still has short-term memory loss and severe headaches. Two scars on his neck show where his throat was slit and a mark on his right shoulder shows where he was stabbed. Those wound have healed. But Klein still has nightmares.

Within the last month, Klein has ventured out of his brother's home in Cheyenne and started to live again. He said the more he goes out and gets his mind off the incident, the fewer nightmares he has.

Rick Smith, Klein's brother, said he has been supportive of Klein through the months, but he has also "gently" pushed him to get out of his room and do things for himself.

"Frank has come along great," Smith said. "He's accomplished the impossible (by living through what he did) and we're very proud of him."

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