Mother Survives Brutal Attack With Baby In The Backseat: The Story Of Tiffany Mead

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Holland pavers offer excludes Alaska and Hawaii. Hi, everyone. I just wanted to let you all know that we have dropped several new merch items to our spring collection. We have multiple new designs in t-shirts, baby tees, hats, and totes. And as a reminder, 100% of the profit from any merch from any of the Mile Higher Media shows goes directly to the Higher Hope Foundation to support victims of violent crime as well as other like-minded nonprofits. We really appreciate it. We really appreciate your support. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of True Crime with Kendall Rae. Thank you so much for joining me today. And if you're new to the show, then welcome. I'm happy to have you here. And I hope you stick around. Make sure to click subscribe if you do so that you never miss an upload from me. So you guys, today I have another survivor story. And I know that you guys love these cases just as much as I do. They are so uplifting and inspiring. And the one that I have for you today is about an incredibly resilient survivor, Tiffany Meade. Tiffany went through an absolutely harrowing experience, to say the least, when her ex-husband, who what a vile waste of a human this guy is. You are not going to believe the details when I tell you. This guy, I mean, he's just such a waste of life. But he violently attacked her. Very, very brutal. And then he kept terrorizing her over time. But through it all, she was able to stay strong and save herself. The strength that Tiffany has is extraordinary. I mean, I'm so inspired by her and her story. And I think you are all going to be blown away when you hear the details about what actually happened to her. So let's go ahead and jump right in. So in 2008, Tiffany Meade was a senior in high school, living in Davis County, Utah, when she met her future husband, Christopher Ertman, on a dating app. And I couldn't confirm if she was 17 or 18 at the time, but I do know that Chris was 22 and that he was also serving in the army at the time. And their relationship escalated pretty damn fast. Just two weeks into dating, they moved in together. And only four weeks after that, they eloped. Then, only a couple months later, Tiffany became pregnant with their first son, Wyatt. And two years after that, they welcomed their second son, Noah. Now, she said during this time, Chris seemed really sweet and dedicated to their new family. But that definitely changed over time. She said she saw a major shift in him from who he was when she first started dating him and, you know, through the beginning of their marriage. Now, he had been stationed in Iraq. And when he returned, his personality was suddenly very different. And obviously, being in the military, especially serving overseas somewhere like Iraq, could really change a person a lot. So, she described him as being very emotionally abusive. And while he never physically hurt her at this point, she was scared just of his anger alone. You know, worried that he was going to blow up and unsure of what he could do. So, ultimately, she filed for divorce and she took their sons and moved in with her parents. But unfortunately, Chris didn't. I hate this very well. And this definitely wasn't the clean break from him that she was hoping to have because Chris just would not leave her alone. He couldn't let her go. And he was constantly just begging her, like the loser that he is, to get back together with him. But she always refused. She knew she deserved better and she knew her sons deserved better. And so, she was ready to move on with her life and start a new chapter that didn't involve him. She started working full-time, enrolled in college, classes at night, and even started seeing someone else. Which just emboldened Chris's anger over losing her. I mean, the more she was moving on, the more he couldn't let her go. The more he was seething with the idea that he wasn't going to be with her anymore. And all that really came to a head on July 23rd, 2013. That night, Tiffany went out to meet Chris because he had promised to give her a child support check. And he had told her that he was going to be with her. And he had told her, of course, to come alone. But she couldn't find child care for their youngest son, Noah, who is now about two years old. So, she texted him that she would have to bring him. And that's when Chris changed their meeting location to a secluded park. And when Tiffany arrived, Chris and her got out of their cars to talk. And as soon as she got a look at him and looked at his eyes, she was immediately concerned. Because she later described the look on his face as empty but determined. Like he was on a mission. And it's scary to say this, but he was. Because when they approached each other, Chris violently attacked her. He put her in a sort of bear hug position, pinning her arms down. And then, this is disturbing, he pulled a knife out of his pocket and said, Don't scream. But before Tiffany could really process anything, he pulled that knife across her neck and slit her throat. And as you can imagine, I mean, this is a horrific injury. Most of the time, it's not survivable. And she started to just lose a lot of blood and became dizzy very quickly. And everything about his actions after this is just so weird and hard to even fathom his mindset. He proceeds to then open her car door and lets her sit on the driver's seat because she's dizzy. And he's trying to help her out. What a chivalrous guy. And then this freak says to her, You know what I want. And Tiffany actually did. Of course, Chris wanted her to call off the divorce and reunite with him, get back together, promise to be together forever. And so, while thinking quickly to save her life, Tiffany said to him, I love you and I'll get back with you. And then this sick fuck tells her to seal it with a kiss. And she did, as blood is pouring out of her neck. And since she did this, and now obviously, since she's going to get back together with him because he's dumb enough to actually believe that, he wants her to live. So he allows her to call 911. But he first says that they need to come up with a story. You know, he wants her to tell dispatch that she cut her own throat trying to take her own life. And what's crazy is, of course, this lunatic picked a super secluded area. So Tiffany didn't really know how to direct emergency workers to where she was. So she had to drive about. And all the while, her crazy ex-husband is sitting next to her and her two-year-old son is in the backseat. It's really just so unbelievable. It's hard to imagine how someone could stay so calm in a situation like that, enough to, you know, slow the bleeding as much as you could and drive to where you can get help. But I think it's really, and this is just my guess, and based off of what she has said too, I think it's motherly instincts where she just knows I have to make sure I get my child away from me. I have to make sure I get my child away from him into safety. And that means making sure that I'm okay. Okay, brunch is in an hour. I'm still in my pajamas. I need to get myself together and figure out my ride. Well, what is a ride going to cost me? That ride might be more expensive than my French toast. Oh, wait. Let me check Lyft too, real quick before I book. That's less than I thought. I guess those savings can go towards getting the eggs, Benedict, too. So we need to get the eggs. We need to get to Knox Henderson. 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Thankfully, emergency workers get there pretty quickly, and they came across a disturbing scene, to say the least. Chris was pacing outside like a freak. He's shirtless with blood all over his hands, while Tiffany is in the car trying to stop the bleeding. And their son, the poor child, he's still in his car seat. And of course, medics go right to Tiffany, but she also noticed that some of them went to her son, which of course they would. But that freaked her out, because she was worried that they were going to hand her son to Chris. And so to stop that from happening, she told them what really happened. She blurted out, don't let him take my baby. I didn't do this. He did this. And of course, in that moment, the scene completely changed. And first responders are no longer treating this as someone trying to take their own life, but instead as an attempted murderer. And oh my god, this next part, hearing the way that Tiffany describes it especially, just broke my heart. As she's being transported to the hospital, during that ride, she ends up calling her mom. It's just the idea of her calling her mom in that situation is so emotional to think about. But she tells her mom that Chris tried to kill her, and that she, as in her mom, needs to come and get the baby. And then what really made me so emotional about this is that once she got off the phone, Tiffany said that she felt at peace in that moment with dying, because she knew that her mother would take care of her children, and that they'd be safe, and she could go. But luckily for her kids, and for her whole family, and for her, they would not lose her that night. And while she's going through all of this, of course, they're bringing in Chris to the police station for questioning. And this is no surprise, but he acted like a complete creep, and just denied everything during his interview. First off, he kept insisting to the officers that Tiffany tried to take her own life, and even told them that she had been recently prescribed antidepressants. Of course, that was part of his spiel. And Chris, truly, he's a giant moron, and this is not the only stupid thing he says. He also told officers that he could never hurt Tiffany because he loves her so much. Mind you, he never even asked the police how she was doing once during this entire time. And he didn't ask how his baby was doing. And he didn't ask how his baby was doing either. That's right, this idiot, you think you would play it up, act it out, you know, try to sell the whole thing. But no, he is incapable of pretending that he cares because Chris just doesn't care about anyone but himself. You would think he would want to portray like he's trying to make sure they're okay. And you would think he would hope that somewhere down in his tiny little pathetic heart, he actually would want to portray like he's trying to make sure they're would care a little bit about if she was going to survive or not, especially because she just told him, I love you and I want to be with you. And maybe he figured that was all out the window since she ratted him out to the police. But I don't know. It's still your child, too. Wouldn't you want to check in on him? Yeah, such a great husband and father. But truly, guys, the grossest part of the interview was when officers told him that they're placing him under arrest for attempted murder. And he responded by saying, honestly, I don't care. I'm not giving my rights over to that bitch. First of all, yes, you are. You fucking idiot. And second of all, I hate you. And even though the police saw right through him, they needed to gather some stronger evidence against him because unfortunately, all they really had was Tiffany's word. So like I mentioned, Tiffany's family did not lose her from Chris's horrific attack. She survived, which is just amazing. And detectives learned that the next day she was recovering and she was ready to talk more, which is to say it's incredible enough that she survived this attack and even more so that she is able to speak and wants to speak the next day, especially because she ended up losing about three and a half liters of blood. And just to put into context here, the human body typically has about five liters. So it's really terrifying to think how much more she could have lost had she not gotten help when she did. I mean, she truly was very, very close to losing her life, but she was determined to fight and refused to let Chris win. So Officer Jen Daly went to speak with her at the hospital, and she said that while Tiffany was pretty frail, she was very confident and direct when recounting everything. And she was even able to give Officer Daly a new detail. While driving from the secluded park to the front of the high school, Chris tossed a knife that he used out the window. So of course, detectives go out and they search that entire area and they can't find it, which, puts them in a tough predicament because still, they didn't have enough evidence against Chris. They needed more. They really needed this knife. And then, get this, about a month after the attack, the judge who's assigned to the case receives a random letter. It was signed by someone named Mary Olson, and she was claiming that she was Tiffany's friend. And in the letter, this friend stated that Tiffany was lying about Chris attacking her, that she did it herself, and that Chris was innocent. But here's the thing. When police looked into it, they couldn't find anyone under that name. And not only that, the return address on the letter didn't even exist. And not to mention, Tiffany hadn't known anyone with the name Mary. So obviously, this letter is fake, and it's written by Chris. But at the time, even though they all knew that had to be the case, they couldn't prove it. So Officer Daly got to work. She decided to start listening to all of the recordings of Chris's jail calls and visits, which were a lot. And she was just hoping to find some kind of lead. Now, she spent six months going through it all. And that's a ton of time and work that she was putting into it. And even her colleagues started to think that maybe she was wasting her time. But she trusted her gut. She knew that something was going to be there. And it paid off because eventually, she was able to find something very, very important. She heard Chris ask his dad to get a guy named Raymond on Facebook and to tell him that he's still in jail. And Officer Daly, you know, she had that gut feeling and decided to follow that lead. She felt like something was strange about this. And so she learned that this Raymond guy had just been released from the same jail that Chris was being held in. And it turns out they were even in the same cell block. They were neighbors. And she thought he probably knew something. And she was correct in that assumption, because when they brought him in and sat him down for an interview, he told her that he was exactly what they needed to hear. Chris admitted to him that he did cut Tiffany's throat and tried to make it look like she did it. And that's not all. He also admitted that Chris gave him a fake letter that he wrote as Tiffany and asked Raymond to send it to the judge. But he never actually did. And that ride might be more expensive than my French toast. Oh, wait, let me check Lyft too, real quick before I book. I guess those savings can go towards getting the eggs Benedict too. So when you need to get to Knox Henderson, taking a few seconds to check Lyft when you book your next ride could save you money. Save the money. Check Lyft. You know that moment when everything lines up, when life gives you the green light, and you just go. Go like you mean it. Save the money. Check Lyft. So now they finally had more evidence against Chris, but Raymond also told them something else that was even more significant. One of the officers, just like on a whim, asked him if Chris had ever asked Raymond to find a way to hurt Tiffany. And surprisingly, he was very honest with them. He revealed that Chris had asked him if he knew a hitman who would be willing to kill Tiffany for $25,000. But luckily, Raymond didn't know anyone. And what's interesting about this is Officer Daly immediately knew that this was legitimate because of the dollar amount. It turns out a few months before all of this, Chris's bank accidentally deposited $25,000 into his account, and he withdrew it all before they realized it. And that money was never found. And now Raymond was saying that that was the exact amount that Chris was offering. And even though the officers believed it, they still couldn't find it. So they had to go to the bank and they had to go to the bank and could not believe how crazy all of this was. I mean, they had only interviewed Raymond to see if he knew anything about Chris trying to kill Tiffany. But now they have stumbled across a whole murder for hire plot. But they were going to need to work hard to prove it. Because once again, this is a situation where it's Chris's word against someone else's. So they end up asking Raymond to stage a jail visit with Chris. And luckily, he agrees like the dummy he is. However, unfortunately, Raymond couldn't get a confession. When he asked Chris if he still wants to get that work done, Chris says, not right now. And when Raymond asked if he would want to do it later, Chris said, no, that's okay. And it's unclear why Chris suddenly seemed to have changed his mind. Maybe he was catching on to Raymond staging this whole thing. Maybe he truly did just change his mind. But in the end, it just left investigators feeling frustrated. They felt like they couldn't send Raymond in again because he certainly would blow his cover at that point if he hadn't already. So unfortunately, this lead quickly led nowhere, and they were unable to take more action. However, this wouldn't last long because just a couple months later, they came across a new lead. Or really, it came to them. A jailhouse informant actually contacted Officer Daly to tell her that he was in the same cell block as Chris, who asked him to find someone willing to murder Tiffany. So of course, she jumps on this immediately and gets an undercover officer to visit this informant in order for them to base their case. And so they do. And they do. And they do. And they do. And they do. And they do. And they do. And they do. And they do. And they do. And they do. And they do. And it works. Chris is seen on the visitor's camera handing the informant a piece of paper with the address of where Tiffany was currently living. But in order to bring charges, they needed Chris to order the hit himself. So they continued the plot. Officers end up informing Tiffany about everything. And while, of course, she is terrified of what Chris might do, she agrees to help the detectives. They had her pose for fake photos that looked like the hitman was following her. And then the undercover officers, bring them to Chris to try and make the hit seem legitimate. And of course, this whole plan absolutely works on this dumbass. Because when the officer visited Chris again, he gives him the okay to go ahead and kill Tiffany. The two of them agreed on $5,000 for the job. And when the officer warns Chris that there will be no going back, Chris excitedly says he knows. And then they ask him when he wants it to take place. And Chris says, the sooner, the better. But what's even more sickening is when the officer asks Chris how he wants Tiffany killed. He said he doesn't care and tells him to, quote, have fun. Have fun. That's right. Just absolutely disgusting. And when Tiffany later heard about this, she said that she felt he said that because he wanted her to suffer. And yeah, I agree with her a thousand percent. I think that's exactly what he meant by that, because he doesn't want to just quickly silence her or get back at her, whatever it is. He wants a complete stranger to enjoy harming her and for her to be tortured, probably. And this is sick on so many different levels. But one of those levels being the fact that he's a father and he's in jail. And he knows that if the mother of his children is murdered and tortured, suffers, who knows what he thinks is going to happen or hopes is going to happen. He knows that his children are not going to have any parents. And he does not care at all. Chris is such a sick and twisted individual, but luckily he was stopped before he could cause even more destruction. So after all of this, Chris was charged with two felony counts of criminal solicitation to commit aggravated murder, three felony counts of obstructing justice. And this was on top of the charge of aggravated assault that he had already for attacking Tiffany. But Chris pled no contest to all of the charges. And a judge sentenced him to three years in prison. And he was sentenced to three years in prison. And he was sentenced to two terms of five years to life in prison. And when I first heard that, I thought, man, that is a huge gap of time for a sentence. You rarely hear of something like that. But however long he's in prison will be up to the Utah's board of pardons and parole. And his first parole hearing was just four years after he pled guilty. During the hearing, Tiffany bravely spoke about her experience and how it's impacted her now. She said, the thing that scares me the most is he will come for my sweet little boys, just because he knows how much I love them. There is no doubt in my mind he will come for me and he will finish what he started. I wake up every morning wondering if today is going to be the day that Chris will summon someone to have fun killing me. For the last five years, I have been suspicious of everyone I walk past. Did Chris send them? And Tiffany wasn't the only person there fighting to keep Chris in prison. Officer Jen Daly was also there to support her how she had been this entire time. She and Tiffany had kept in contact after everything. And Tiffany has said that she has been like her guardian angel. Officer Daly had actually never attended a parole hearing before, but she says she now plans to go to every single one of Chris's hearings. And as for that loser, the board said that they found aggravating factors of risk to public safety and victim impact. And he was denied. They also decided not to review his case again until 2029, which I just hope for Tiffany's sake that he is kept in prison as long as possible. And I really don't see why they would let this monster out. He is a clear risk to not just Tiffany and their children, but society as a whole. But I'm done talking about Chris for now. I want to tell you more about Tiffany. And at this point, Tiffany is remarried and she is focused on raising her two sons. She's a wonderful mother. And since they were so young when all this happened, she's actually kept a lot of details from them until they were old enough to understand because of course she did not want them to live in fear, which on that note of living in fear, Tiffany has talked a lot about how she just forever lives in fear. And I don't see how you wouldn't after going through what she did. She's afraid of small things like just being out at night or driving at night or hearing the sound of water dripping because she could hear her own blood dripping in a pool in the bottom of the car. And it's stuff like that that will just always stay with her and haunt her and breaks my heart that Chris was able, even though she survived, to have such a lasting impact on her life. But at the end of the day, he did not get what he wants. Tiffany survived. She is a wonderful mother and will continue to be. And like I said, she has protected them from knowing about what has happened. She told them that someone, someone had hurt her and she needed surgery. And she has explained that her kids understand that there are things that she is afraid of, but she's really done her best to give them as normal of a life as possible, which at the end of the day, I think just says everything about her as a mother and how much she loves her sons. And I really think that her will to survive in that moment came from her strength as a mother and her love for her children, which is really so beautiful. And she puts them above everything else. But even though everything with Chris is a part of her past, of course, she still really struggles with the trauma of what she went through. She says she often has difficulty seeing the scar on her neck whenever she looks in the mirror. But I truly hope that no matter what she goes through, she knows how strong and brave she is. I am so impressed by Tiffany. I think her strength is so strong. I think her story absolutely deserves to be told and shared with as many people as possible. Because the way that she was able to fight for herself, not just in that moment, but for years after, is just so impressive and all for her sons. It just tells you everything you need to know about Tiffany Meade. And I hope after hearing her story, you are as inspired as I am. But that's going to be it for me today, guys. I am still on maternity leave. I don't know when during my you're going to see this or when I'll be back, or I don't know anything at this point, obviously. But I hope you're doing well. And I will be back eventually, maybe next week. We'll see. I'll see you guys next time. But until then, stay safe out there. For the right SUV, this is your sign. Check out the 2026 Toyota RAV4 at your local Toyota dealer, or visit toyota.com. See packages and options at toyota.com for feature availability.