“EIGHT DAYS AT SHADE GAP”
On May 11, 1966, 17-year-old Peggy Ann Bradnick was abducted by a man who lay in wait behind a tree near her rural school bus stop. This began the ordeal known as eight days at Shade Gap. Chained to her kidnapper, Peggy Ann traversed Pennsylvania’s Tuscarora Mountains, scrambling from one remote hiding spot to another as the FBI, State Police and a growing rescue party never gave up their search. By the eighth day an FBI Agent was dead, a local man wounded and Peggy Ann was losing hope of ever seeing her family again.
Peggy Ann’s faith and resilience carried her through this grueling ordeal with a vow of forgiveness and promise to do whatever she could to improve mental health services for the criminally insane.