Connie met Tom Culp when she was 15, and she ran away with him a year later. "My relationship with Tom wasn't any different than living with my dad. He told me what do to, and I did it. He teased me and called me names. My dad did the same thing, so I just thought it was a normal way of life," she says.

After years of being victimized, Connie started to stand up for herself. "He would push me and people would see it, and I would get up and I'd say, 'I'm a good person, and I don't deserve that,'" she says. "He wasn't used to me talking back."