Kidnapped: The Cindy Paulson Story [Installment One]
Cindy Paulson’s narrative is driven by her need to tell Glenn Flothe everything about her kidnapping by Robert Hansen. Sometimes, Flothe has to deliberately slow her pace. He wants to capture every last detail, down to the coffee table in Hansen’s den.
Purchase Butcher, Baker
Cindy Paulson
FLOTHE: OK. Now, let’s back up a little bit… You come into the garage, now tell me what happens next. When you come into the garage…
CINDY: He takes me out of the car and takes me to the house.
FLOTHE: You were still handcuffed?
CINDY: Yeah, I was handcuffed the whole time.
FLOTHE: Did you go downstairs?
CINDY: Uh huh.
FLOTHE: And what happened when you went downstairs?
CINDY: He sat down on the… I sat down on the chair next to the coffee table, whatever you call it. He pulled the bear skin rug around… And all the time he kept telling me ‘Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you if you cooperate.’ And he kept one handcuff on me while I was (inaudible). And then for a minute, after he had had sex with me on the bear skin rug, he left my hand handcuffed and my neck tied and then connected a rope around my feet. But that didn’t work. It came untied.
FLOTHE: Somehow we jumped from coming down stairs to being on a bear rug. What happened in between? I mean…
CINDY: He just…
FLOTHE: Did he chain you up at that point, or…
CINDY: No.
FLOTHE: He didn’t…
CINDY: He just tied me up to the coffee table, that’s here, and the TV’s in the center (points to diagram).
FLOTHE: He tied you up to the coffee table… How did he do that?
CINDY: Tied a rope around my neck and the coffee table… the coffee table on the top… and then it has a… compartments underneath where you can store stuff… tied me around with a rope.
FLOTHE: Was your head closed in, or…
CINDY: Nope. My hands…
FLOTHE: What’s this big square in front of the coffee table?
CINDY: That’s the rug.
FLOTHE: Oh. Write that on there somewhere. That’s the bear rug?
CINDY: Nope. The bear rug isn’t… This is just a regular rug.
FLOTHE: What color’s that rug?
CINDY: I believe it’s red and pink.
FLOTHE: OK, so he tied your…
CINDY: Head right in here (points to diagram). And my head was here and the rope here… and this chair was flipped over here… And I always had my handcuff there and I was laying this way…
FLOTHE: Why don’t you draw yourself… You know, draw a stick figure showing how you were… You know, head along here…
[pause]
CINDY: (sobs and sniffles) Sorry…
FLOTHE: That’s all right… So, your right arm was tied to…
CINDY: I was handcuffed…
FLOTHE: Handcuffed to…
CINDY: To the chair…
FLOTHE: The chair…
CINDY: And my head was… tied a rope around my neck…
FLOTHE: OK.
CINDY: …and tied to the coffee table…
Hansen’s Den w/ Coffee Table (courtesy Alaska State Troopers; illustration, Leland E. Hale)
FLOTHE: And your right arm…
CINDY: My arm was straight.
FLOTHE: And your leg?
CINDY: My legs were free.
FLOTHE: OK. Did he… How did your clothes get off?
CINDY: He took ‘em off.
FLOTHE: All of ‘em?
CINDY: Except for my… Except for my shirt… I took it off.
FLOTHE: You took your shirt off…
CINDY: Yes, he said to. I did. Shit, with a gun in your face, you would too.
FLOTHE: He had the gun in his hand when he told you to?
CINDY: Oh, yeah.