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TOPEKA, Kansas — It's been two and a half years since Jamie Warhurst was involved in a high-speed chase, eluding Utah Highway Patrol troopers who had pulled her over. She reached speeds of more than 100 miles per hour on I-70 between Richfield and Green River in March 2013 before having her tires spiked.
When police vehicles got close, Warhurst pulled out her gun and pointed it at herself.
"It is something I think about every once in a while, especially driving past that particular area," said Trooper Rod Elmer of Utah Highway Patrol, who was on scene that night, as was Sgt. Rich Haycock.
Haycock began to negotiate with Warhurst, a situation for which he had been trained.
Warhurst remembered hearing Haycock's attempt to talk her down. She also remembered hearing another voice.
"… It said, 'Pull the trigger, kill yourself, your family hates you;' whatever it was, every single time, Haycock answered it (with the opposite)," Warhurst explained. "Like, 'Pull the trigger,' (and he'd say) 'Don't pull the trigger.' 'Your father hates you,' 'Your father loves you,' to the point where I'm like, 'You hear that?' … Maybe I'm not crazy, because you're answering him."
Haycock said he didn't hear that voice, but he remembered feeling the encounter was going to end badly.
"That day when I was talking to her, there was a point in time in which I felt like I was losing her, and I was really scared," Haycock said. "It flashed through my mind a couple of times: She's going to shoot herself right here."
Haycock didn't give up and continued to talk Warhurst down. After a few hours, she put the gun down.
"I just told her, and this is from everybody, as a dad, I know that we love our kids and so I know her dad loved her," Haycock said.
Warhurst was taken into jail in Sevier County and eventually sent back to Kansas. Looking back now, she said she knows there was divine intervention that day.
Warhurst was recently released from prison after spending about two years in the Topeka Correctional Facility. It was her time there that prompted her to write an email thanking Elmer and Haycock for saving her life. She considers writing the letter her first step to doing better.
Warhurst is currently a student at Washburn University in Topeka — her first time attending school in 20 years. She has a 3.5 GPA and is thinking about becoming a social worker.
"My heart and my passion is so much to help women who were like me and I wouldn't have been able to do that if (Elmer and Haycock) hadn't done what they did."
