Double homicide survivor thanks first responders who helped save her life

After more than a year and a half of rehabilitation Jaclyn Burden, 24, shares her story of witnessing her handyman kill two people and her journey of recovery.

Burden was 22 years old lying in a hospital bed unsure if she would live to see another day.

She describes March 15, 2017 as the scariest day of her life. Burden was outside her Lake Travis home addressing a business dispute between her landlord and her handyman, Randall Lee Burrows.

Burden says her landlord was not satisfied with the quality of work Burrows performed and wanted to decrease his pay. This made Burrows angry.

“At that point I remember thinking this isn't going well and being uncomfortable and backing away from the situation and he had pulled out a gun from his vehicle and that's when I realized this has gone really, really horribly wrong," Burden said. "I remember him walking towards them and hearing them scream and the gun go off and I immediately turned and ran away."

Burden ran back inside her house and locked the door. It was then she said Burrows kicked it in and shot her twice once in the arm and then in the right side of her head. After trauma surgery, Burden learned both her landlord 60-year-old Susan Gulla-O'Leary and her boyfriend 60-year-old Richard Guthrie were killed.

Burrows later took his own life after he was confronted by police in Mississippi.

Burden was left recovering. "When I woke up from the surgery I was completely paralyzed from the left side of my body I couldn't move my arm or my leg I couldn't move my neck and I was half blind in both eyes," said Burden. "I didn't just want to give up I guess I had to prove to myself and prove to other people around me that I wasn't just this poor innocent victim and this was it for my life."

Burden is walking and is working on gaining full mobility of her left arm.

She has since made a GoFundMe to help with the financial toll medical costs have taken on her life.

Burden said she wanted to share her story to inspire other survivors. "My message to other survivors would be that they've gone through a horrible trauma to find a silver lining of some sort,” Burden said. "My silver lining is that I guess before I was just a regular 22-year-old without a life goal or ambition I guess after this I found am purpose or meaning in my life."

The Travis County Sheriff’s Office surprised her with an opportunity to thanks the same first responders who saved her life that day. She hugged each and every one of them curious as to what they remember. It was a rare moment for these men and women. Several who have never met a survivor or seen one who in better condition then what they found her in.

Burden said her goal is now to create a non-profit that assists people with disabilities.