Naman Shrestha
Investigation Discovery’s ‘Hunted by My Husband: The Untold Story of the DC Sniper’ delves deep into the sniper attacks led by John Allen Muhammad in the Washington, DC, area in October 2002. The series of shootings led to the deaths of multiple victims, but among a few survivors was a 43-year-old woman named Caroline Seawell. Although she survived the shooting, it is likely that the life-threatening incident had a significant effect on her life.
Caroline Seawell Was Shopping For Halloween When She Got Shot in Early October 2002
Born in the late 1950s, Carolina Seawell was looking forward to decorating her house for Halloween in 2002. On October 4, 2002, she visited a Michaels store at Spotsylvania Mall in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, to purchase a few Halloween decoration items. After she finished shopping around 2:30 pm, she was loading her purchases into her minivan in the parking lot. That’s when the 43-year-old woman was suddenly shot in the chest. Her first thought after getting shot was “I have children and please God, don’t let me die,” she told WTVR. Right after the shot went through her back and damaged her liver, the authorities were called by a bystander who initially didn’t believe that she had been shot. Finally, after the police arrived at the scene, they rushed Carolina to the hospital for treatment of her wounds.
Around the time, a sniper had been claiming victims at random across different states, and she was the seventh individual to get shot and one of three survivors. The investigation led the police to John Allen Muhammad, who had committed the shootings alongside a juvenile accomplice named Lee Boyd Malvo. In October 2003, John stood trial for his crimes. During the trial, Carolina took the stand and stated, “I felt pain through my back, then my front, heard the noise almost simultaneously, and I knew immediately that I had been shot. I first prayed, first said a prayer that God would not let me die.” Soon after surviving the shooting, Caroline Seawell reportedly relocated to South Carolina with her family.
In the following years, she refused to live her life as a victim. She admitted that, instead, the incident turned her into a much stronger person as she was able to put it all behind her and carry on living her life as she would have, with her loved ones. She told 6ABC, “They didn’t do what they set out to do because they haven’t devastated my life. I’ve been able to move on and continue and raise my children, which is exactly what I wanted to do. I don’t want them to have any satisfaction out of the fact that they shot me.” Although she believed that John Muhammad, the serial shooter, deserved to die, Caroline did not travel to Virginia to attend his execution on the night of November 10, 2009. By then, she had already lost both her parents to cancer, and she refused to witness another death.
Caroline Seawell is a Single Mother and Grandmother Today
Caroline Seawell, alongside a couple of other survivors of the DC sniper, featured in multiple documentaries, including ‘Aftermath with William Shatner: DC Sniper Victims,’ wherein she talked about her experience and the effects that the incident had on her life. In the following years, she considered herself lucky to be able to watch her son marry the love of his life and become a grandmother to their child. Still seemingly residing in South Carolina, Caroline tragically lost her longtime husband, who was a person with disability, around 2020.
Feeling his love in spirit, she continues to be there for his two grown-up sons and her grandchildren. Apart from being a doting mother and grandmother, Caroline is also a devout Christian. On every Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, she seems to miss her parents a bit more than usual. Ever since she lost her soulmate, Caroline has been missing him each day and keeping his loving memories close to her heart.
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