How a Pregnant Mother Saved Her Family from a Terrifying Home Invasion

Our homes are usually the places we feel safest, where we seek solace from the chaos of the world. Unfortunately for a family in 2009, a relaxing weekend turned into a nightmare when intruders invaded their home and held them captive for three days. In the midst of this terrifying crime, pregnant mother Marcela Borges risked her life to save her family.

On the morning of Sunday, November 15, 2009, 27-year-old Borges, pregnant with her second child, was watching television with her 5-year-old son, Ryan. Borges’ husband, 48-year-old Rubens Morais, president of RLM Trucks Carrier, was working on the payroll for his company nearby. It was a typical weekend in their 3,700-square-foot household, part of a gated community in Winter Garden, Fla.

However, when the doorbell suddenly rang, the family’s lives would change forever.

As soon as Morais opened the front door, four armed gunmen stormed inside, overtook the family and ransacked the house for money and anything else of value. Seemingly unhappy with their findings, the intruders then blindfolded their captives and forced them into a car, driving them to another house 13 miles north in Apopka, Fla. The frightened family was held hostage overnight before being taken back home the following day.

Borges was then singled out by the captors to drive to a nearby bank and withdraw money, under threat that her family would be killed if she resisted. Even though Borges handed over nearly $24,000, the assailants—three men and one woman—seemed certain she and her husband were holding out on funds worth $200,000.

When Borges explained they didn’t have that sort of money, the family’s captivity took a darker turn.

By the second evening, the family was still blindfolded and bound, unable to fight back as their assailants tortured them. Borges could only listen helplessly as Morais cried in fear and the captors played Russian roulette with Ryan.

The entire time, Borges wondered: Why were these intruders insistent that they had $200,000 they could hand over?

On the third day, Borges asked the sole female gunman for water, so she escorted her to the kitchen. There, Borges managed to pull down her own blindfold and grab a knife, holding it to the other woman’s throat. While the two women fought, the assailant’s mask came off. Freaked out that her face had been revealed, the woman dragged Borges upstairs and brutally assaulted her with her fists and a gun. Then, bloodied and beaten, Borges was left alone, listening to the gunmen talking in an adjacent room. Instantaneously, she realized the assailants didn’t intend to leave without more money—and they would murder her family in the process.

Thinking fast, Borges freed herself, jumped from a second-story window and ran away as fast as she could. The captors heard Borges’ escape and fired shots at her. She was hit once in the back, the bullet passing through her body and hitting her wrist. But miraculously, Borges managed to reach a neighbor’s house and call 911.

By the time police arrived on Tuesday, November 17, the nightmare for the family had finally ended.

Borges was taken to a nearby hospital to treat her injuries, which included a broken nose and face alongside her gunshot wounds. While Ryan was physically unharmed, Morais’ head had been hit with a blunt object. Both parents eventually made a full recovery.

Predictably, the assailants had escaped by the time police arrived on the scene. But the three male gunmen—Oscar Diaz Hernandez, Miguel Diaz Santiz, and Victor Manuel Sanchez—were soon apprehended and charged with attempted murder, kidnapping and armed robbery.

Sanchez’s trial in February 2012 forced Borges and Morais to confront the horror of the home invasion over two years prior. But given the photographic evidence and Borges’ strong testimony, Sanchez was found guilty within a week.

That May, Diaz Santiz also went on trial, with Borges giving a compelling victim statement about her ordeal and how Ryan remained scared to play outside even years afterwards, This time, Diaz Santiz pleaded no contest to his charges, claiming he didn’t want the family to undergo another trial. Both he and Sanchez are currently serving life imprisonments.

The third gunman, Hernandez, was set to go on trial in October 2012, but he attempted to die by suicide that June and was ultimately declared incompetent to stand trial. Borges ultimately dropped the charges against him, which included his shooting at her during her escape, in April 2013.

As for the lone woman, Bianca Dos Santos, police eventually determined that she had masterminded the home invasion. It was uncovered that Dos Santos’ mother provided financial services for Morais’ company, which had led Dos Santos to believe the family had hundreds of thousands worth stealing. To this day, she remains at large.

Due to their traumatic experience, Borges’ family has given few interviews and posted little on social media. The few updates Borges has given in the years since the ordeal reveal she pursued higher education in nursing and gave birth to her family’s second son, Lucas—with whom she was two months pregnant during the home invasion—in mid- to late-2010.

Borges’ brave efforts are reflected in the scripted Lifetime film Terror Comes Knocking: The Marcela Borges Story.