CINCINNATI -- Nearly two years ago, a knock at Patricia Temke's door changed her life.
Thinking it was someone shouting for help, Temke opened the door. Instead, she found her next door neighbor, who planned to kill both her and her boyfriend.
Temke broke her silence Wednesday, just a few weeks after the neighbor, Michael Barnett, pleaded guilty.
The night of the attack, the couple ate a dinner of pork chops Temke made for herself and her boyfriend, Steve Snodgrass. They went to bed a little before 10 p.m.
Soon, "there was this horrific pounding in the door," Temke said.
As soon as she opened the door, Barnett grabbed her hair and dragged her to the sidewalk, she said. Barnett beat her and stabbed her several times.
"You try to scream and nothing comes out," she said. "Just the fear is so horrendous that nothing comes out of your mouth."
Temke thought she was going to die.
"I just kept thinking about my family finding me that way," she said.
Temke tried to crawl to her neighbor's door.
"Michael Barnett just thought that was the funniest thing that he ever saw," she said. "He was laughing this evil cackle. It was horrible."
Then Temke heard her boyfriend's voice.
"I could vaguely hear Steve holler, 'Hey, get off her,' and I passed out," she said.
Barnett then turned on Snodgrass, eventually killing him.
"When I came to, I found Steve's body and a pool of blood under his head," Temke said.
Police say the brutal crime happened because of a dispute over a patch of asphalt between their homes.
Temke's daughter, Angela Lay, said Barnett has never showed remorse.
"He has the absolute darkness in him," Lay said. "It's beyond evil."
Barnett was sentenced by a judge just weeks ago. He had been facing the death penalty, but took a plea deal. He was sentenced to 23 years-to-life in prison.
That's one of the reasons why Temke was now ready to tell her story.
"Now is a time for us all to think about Steve with the love and laughter and the dancing that he always did," Temke said. "It's time to look at the high spots of his life."
