How it began:

In the summer of 1995, Thad Phillips, who was 13 years old at the time, had just moved to Baraboo, Wisconsin with his family. Thad was known to be very intelligent and, described by the people in his town as “cheerfully cocky.” He also played baseball. On July 29, when Thad was laying on his couch in the living room, a man broke into his home. The man came closer to Thad and picked him up. He initially thought it was his father carrying him up to his room, but the man actually carried half asleep Thad into the forest. It was not until later that Thad realized something was wrong. The man was friendly to him, though; he told Thad about people he recognized at school, which made him trust the man. Thad followed him into a run-down house, where the man talked about having a party soon. Stepping into the home, an odor filled in the air. There was trash and dirt everywhere. The man told Thad to follow him upstairs where he had stuff he wanted to show him for the party. Going up the staircase and into a bedroom, for the next 43 hours, Thad Phillips would be held captive and be faced with severe and psychological torture.

The start of the torture:

In the room, the man told Thad his name: Joe Clark. Joe Clark was a 17 year old teenage boy who had a fascination with breaking bones. He held normal conversations with Thad, like he was his friend, talking about baseball cards and other things. Eventually, Thad actually felt a false sense of security to Joe. That all changed when Joe revealed that he had murdered two other boys a year earlier. With this information, Thad felt a new level of fear, confusion, and terror. Before he could react, Clark’s mood abruptly changed. He threw Thad on the bed and as he tried to fight back, Clark twisted Thad’s ankle until the bone snapped and made a “pop.”  He was in shock and in desperate pain; the pain was so unbearable that he passed out. 

The psychological torture:

When Thad woke up, Joe acted calm and friendly again, as if nothing happened. This made his emotional and mental state become fragile. He was also in a lot more pain than before. He then asked Joe if he could give him a phone so he could call his parents and tell them that he was alright. Joe surprisingly agreed and gave him a phone. This brought Thad some hope that there might be a chance of escaping. It was not until he tried dialing his parents that he realized the cord for the phone was cut off. Joe watched and enjoyed the hope drain from Thad’s face. But not all hope was lost for Thad — he believed that there was still a chance for his life to be spared. Instead of focusing on escaping, he was now going to focus on surviving. For the rest of the night, he laid on the floor awake, paralyzed with fear of what would come next.

First attempt:

The next morning, Thad thought about ways to befriend Joe as he thought it would help him survive by “buying time” and preventing further attacks from Joe. After a long period of time, Joe went out of the room for a moment. This is when Thad decided to make a run for it. So with no hesitation, he got up and ran. He ran down the stairs as fast as he could while feeling the broken bone in his ankle shift further up his leg. Joe had already caught up to him as he got outside and dragged him back inside the house. After this attempt, Joe no longer acted like a friend to Thad. He tortured him even more, breaking his hip. Thad was enduring pain he had never felt before in the worst way possible. The slight possibility of getting out of that house stuck with him, though, even after what he experienced so far.

Second attempt:

Later, Joe told Thad that his girlfriend was coming over. He left Thad in the bedroom, where he decided that this would be his next attempt to escape. He crawled down the stairs quietly while Joe and his girlfriend laid on the couch watching TV. Thad made it to the kitchen but realized he couldn’t do anything without making a sound and attracting Joe’s attention. So, he laid in the kitchen waiting for Joe to find him. When he did, he took him back to the bedroom where he tortured him even more, breaking his femur. Even with two failed attempts at escaping, Thad was still determined to escape. Just next time, he’d need to be cautious about how he was going to do it.

Last attempt:

Not too long after, Joe told Thad that he needed to get out of the house to do something. To make sure he didn’t escape again, Joe locked Thad in a dark closet in his room. In that closet, he waited quietly until he knew Joe was gone. While sitting there, he had found an old electric guitar with which he thought would be useful to break down the closet door. When the time came, he broke down the door and ran towards the nearest phone, which was downstairs. But a problem struck: his injuries. Thad could barely even walk. Going down the stairs would be a huge challenge. However, Thad was determined to get to that phone, and he was determined to survive. He thought the only way to get down was to throw himself down the stairs. As painful as it might have been, Thad made it down with slightly more injuries than before. He made it to the kitchen where he found the phone, dialing the police immediately.

When police arrived:

When the police arrived, they found Thad lying on the kitchen floor suffering massive injuries. They found that his knee was turned completely backwards and that his ankles were badly broken. Clark was arrested on the spot, but when asked about Thad’s injuries, he claimed no recollection of how Thad got injured, suggesting he “kind of blacked-out.” Thad was immediately taken to the hospital, where he recovered shortly after.

The aftermath:

When the trial came for this case, Thad explained how Joe said he killed two other boys before him. With that information, police recovered a cold case of a boy named Chris Steiner whose death was ruled as an accidental drowning. A new autopsy revealed that Steiner’s legs and ankles had been broken in the same way as Thad’s, changing the manner of death. Police tried to find the name of the other boy also mentioned, but unfortunately found nothing. They eventually investigated Joe’s home, where they found notebooks containing a kill list of 25 to 30 other boys. Clark pleaded no contest but not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, as his mother drank a lot while she was pregnant, which police assume is the reason Joe acted this way. At the end, Joe was sentenced to life in prison with an additional 50 years. He has made multiple appeals, all of which have been denied. Now he still remains incarcerated.  Thad was awarded $21 million in damages. However, he reported that he never received any of the money. Currently, Thad still lives with the physical and emotional effects of the trauma but is very grateful to be alive. 

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