Naman Shrestha
Over the course of four days in January 2013, Cynthia Hartman endured something horrific and life-threatening in the secluded cabin of his then-boyfriend, Shaun M. Cleary. Despite living through a series of nightmarish situations, she somehow managed to survive to tell the tale. Her life before and after the incident is explored in detail in Investigation Discovery’s ‘Cabin in the Woods: Five Days in Hell,’ which also features insightful interviews with the survivor’s loved ones as they share their opinions on the entire debacle.
Cynthia Hartman Separated From Her Husband and Met Someone New in 2012
On June 6, 1979, in Flint, Michigan, Darcy and Deborah Hensel Sr. gave birth to Cynthia Rella Hensel. Growing up alongside three siblings — Sarah Durocher, Patricia Baker, and Darcy Hensel Jr. — Cynthia turned out to be an outdoorsy person and an avid nature lover. Camping and canoeing with her friends brought her a great sense of enjoyment, and so did nurturing her house plants. At a fairly young age, she got pregnant with her first child, after which a couple more followed. Around the same time, she also got married.
After entering motherhood, she became a doting mother as her children — Trever Hensel, Dennis Hartman III, and Jesse Hartman — meant the whole world to her. By 2012, Cynthia’s marriage deteriorated, so she had separated from her longtime husband. In the fall of the same year, she crossed paths with Shaun M. Cleary in her trigonometry class at Delta College. Started off as friends, the two became romantically involved by November 2012. Little did she know that he was a former convict who had served time in prison for drugging, stabbing, and holding his fiancée captive in a shed in October 2000.
Cynthia Was Tortured by Her New Boyfriend When She Decided to End Things With Him
To keep his criminal past hidden from her, Shaun told her that he worked with a team of engineers for a global company. As the couple grew closer, Cynthia moved in with him at his father’s secluded cabin in Hay Township in Gladwin County. Later, she realized that Shaun was not the one and thought about giving her marriage another try with her estranged husband. When she told Shaun that she was getting back with her husband, he did not take it well. On the morning of January 15, 2013, she began packing up her belongings while Shaun had gone to work. However, before she could take off, he returned and shot her with his .22-caliber rifle, cracking her skull but failing to penetrate it.
When she got back up, he allegedly shot her again. This time, the bullet left a grazing wound. What followed were four days of torture and pain for Cynthia, who was kept bound and constantly threatened by her boyfriend. One of the days, he even tried to drown her at a nearby lake. Never letting her out of his sight, Shaun took her with her even when he went outside for some errands. During the days of her captivity, he allegedly texted her husband from her phone to avoid raising any suspicions. When it all became too much for her to take, she decided to escape on January 19, 2013. Around 9 pm, she successfully convinced him not to tie her wrists while he went to take a quick shower.
As soon as he turned on the shower, she got her tied and taped feet free and made a run for her escape. Finding a tarp inside a neighbor’s garage, she hid underneath it. She waited for Shaun to drive away before emerging from the tarp and explaining her situation to a couple of men inside the garage. A 911 call was placed, and soon, the authorities took Shaun into custody as he was arrested for multiple charges, including unlawful imprisonment, felony firearm, assault with intent to commit murder, and felon in possession of a firearm. Meanwhile, Cynthia was taken to MidMichigan Medical Center in Midland, where her severe injuries were treated.
Cynthia Hartman Battled With Multiple Mental Health Issues After the Incident
Following the traumatic incident, Cynthia Hartman had a couple of surgeries to get rid of the lead from her skull. Due to the skull injuries, her judgment was reportedly impaired. Moreover, in the years to come, she battled with post-traumatic stress disorder and dealt with paranoia, anxiety, panic attacks, and depression. Because of her experience, she lost touch with many of her loved ones, including her beloved children. During Shaun Cleary’s sentencing in January 2014, Cynthia took to the stand and addressed the court.
In an impactful statement, she said, “He should never be released from prison again. I don’t think he can ever be rehabilitated, ever. He’s not meant for society. He never will be. He will do this again.” In the end, the convict was sentenced to nearly three decades to 65 years in prison for his crimes. In the following years, she seemingly found love again in a man named Denny Reynolds while she continued to take medicines for her mental health issues. On August 4, 2017, at the age of 38, Cynthia Hensel died from a lethal mixture of prescription medications at her home.
Read More: Shaun M. Cleary: Where is the Abductor Now?
