Soon after the accident, Jenny Pratt’s parents received a call that their daughter had been involved in an accident. However, no other details were given to them. They immediately rushed to the hospital and were met with the news that Pratt was already brain dead. The doctor who treated her said that the impact of the 2 by 4 plank crushed her skull and “caused immediate shut down of her brain,” (via Unsolved). Fortunately, Pratt survived. She went into a three-month coma after the incident, and when she came out of it, she was bound to a wheelchair and had the mind of a child.

Pratt’s parents — Diane and Garry Strom — worked with a private investigator to find out the identity of the assailant. Per the Los Angeles Times, they have an inkling on who was involved, but there is no evidence to prove it. “Just about anyone you talk to says they know who did it. I think there’s hundreds of people now who know who did it,” Garry said in a 1988 interview. The Carlsbad police, however, said that they followed several leads, but have come up with nothing but circumstantial evidence at best. Garry also recalled a time when her daughter told him that “a couple of people were after Curtis for something.” Curtis Croft said that he didn’t see the plank coming and everything happened so fast. “I never saw the stick. I never saw who was in the truck, it went by that fast,” he stated. Pratt’s case was featured in the TV show “Unsolved Mysteries.”