Stalking victim relives ordeal on crime show

The blast from the 12-gauge, sawed-off shotgun nearly severed her right index finger, and glass and buckshot cut the left side of her face and neck.

The stalking and shooting, which happened July 15, 1996, will be shared by McGetrick, 59, who now lives in Scottsdale, on Investigation Discovery’s “Obsession: Dark Desires.” It airs Tuesday at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. (See box)

In a phone interview last week, McGetrick relived her ordeal. She had left her Vail home and was driving at 4:30 a.m. to Costco on Tucson’s northwest side where she worked as a cashier.

While traveling the interstate, nearing Palo Verde Road a blast shattered her truck’s window on the driver’s side, shards of glass flying throughout the cab. McGetrick pulled over on the side of the road.

“I remember thinking, ‘I am not going to die,’” she said. “I jumped out the passenger side door. I fell to the ground and I grabbed my phone and I called 911.”

She reported the shooting, and ran from the truck down into a gully, hiding under a mesquite tree not far from the now University of Arizona Medical Center Kino campus.

McGetrick waited — terrified, thinking Dale Scheck, a former Detroit police officer and Vietnam combat veteran — was still after her. The single mother was tormented by Scheck for months after she cut ties with him after their second date.

She waited quietly in the brush during a monsoon storm until law enforcement officers found her. By that time, Scheck had fled the scene.

Hours later, officers found Scheck dead at his northwest-side house. He killed himself with a .38-caliber revolver inside the van that was parked in the garage, said McGetrick. The shotgun Scheck used to shoot at McGetrick also was found in the van.

Stalking victims should not blame themselves for the actions of their assailants, emphasized McGetrick, who underwent five surgeries at Tucson Medical Center to save her finger, and repair damage to her face.

“It can happen to anybody. I never dreamed it would happen to me. I thought I was smart enough. But, you just don’t know,” said McGetrick, explaining she met Scheck at Costco. He was a regular shopper who eventually asked her out, and she accepted.

McGetrick said she knew by the second date, following what she called a road rage incident, that she didn’t want to see Scheck anymore. She stopped answering his telephone calls.

Scheck’s harassing, angry and intimidating calls were constant, and one day Scheck approached McGetrick while she was putting gas in her vehicle on the other side of the city from where he lived, which alarmed her.

“At that point, I got the police involved,” said McGetrick, recalling she filed a report four months before the shooting.

McGetrick filed a restraining order after Scheck showed up at her workplace days before the shooting. She also filed a report when he telephoned her home and left a message saying he was going to kill her and her children.

“The system failed me,” said McGetrick. “I did everything I was supposed to do.” She said she did receive a $480,000 settlement in a malpractice suit filed against her original attorney who botched a lawsuit against the Tucson Police Department that was eventually dropped.

McGetrick said victims of stalkers must pursue their cases, and “make sure law enforcement takes you seriously.”

These situations affect the entire family, especially children, said McGetrick, explaining that her son and daughter were ages 8 and 9, respectively, at the time of the shooting. They underwent counseling, but as adults still have nightmares. They do not plan on seeing the episode, McGetrick said.