‘MY GOD, WE MADE IT!’ (Kidnapped girls tell how ordeal made them pals)

The two teenage girls who were abducted by 37 year old Roy Dean Ratliff, tried to kill him while he slept by stabbing him and hitting him on the head with a whiskey bottle, according to one of the teens.  We got this plan we were going to try to kill him, Jacqueline Marris, 17, of Lancaster said.  Marris and 16 year old Tamara Brooks were abducted by Ratliff early Thursday from a remote area where they were parked with their dates.  According to Kern County Sheriff Carl Sparks, the girls were raped.  Ratliff was shot and killed by deputies after a manhunt that led to a remote desert region more than 100 miles north of Los Angeles.  Jacqueline said she stabbed Ratliff in the throat with a knife and he woke up and he was like shocked and everything as Tamara hit him in the face with the whiskey bottle.  Ratliff opened the car door and we both kicked him out and I threw the knife at him, Marris said.  Then he brandished his gun and regained control of the girls.  Ratliff was wanted on an October 2001 rape charge and would have faced life in prison if convicted of that crime.  Because of that he had nothing to lose and would have killed the girls if officers had not arrived.  He was shot after pointed a gun at one of two deputies who were first to reach the scene.  The two teens turned from strangers into best friends.  It's amazing what kind of friend you can make in so little time, said Jacqueline as she tightly clutched Tamara.  They said they now plan to be as close as sisters for the rest of their lives.  During the 12-hour horror, I was touching her, letting her know I was there, said Jacqueline.  I wasn't going to leave her alone at all.  I wouldn't want to live like that, added Tamara, who said she used the power of prayer to keep from flipping out.

(Bakersfield, California)