When Brittany decided to go on the run, police say she went willingly. Although she couldn’t talk about the case, she sat down to talk to FOX 17, giving us some insight into what happened in Colorado and what was happening in her mind that would cause her to join up with the fugitives and stay on the run.
“Just scared, what was going to happen to me,” says Brittany Rector, 18-year-old shared her feelings about being alone in a Colorado detention facility through a slow stream of tears.
Before there was that point of regret and sadness, before Brittany Rector got sucked into a life full of police searches, car chases, meth and near death situations, she was a normal 17-year-old who enjoyed school and athletics.
“I was getting good grades in school, playing my sports, volleyball, softball, hanging out with friends,” says Brittany.
Then came a whole new group of friends, drug use and the offer to go on the run with her fugitive boyfriend, 32-year-old Kenneth Grauman II and 23-year-old Greg Bradshaw who’d escaped from Lake County.
29-year-old Laura Grauman was also part of the group. Brittany says she knows she didn’t make the right decision, but her judgment was clouded, meth playing a big role.
“I think over time it got worse. I wanted it more in a bigger quantity. It felt like over time, that`s all I cared about,” says Rector.
Brittany says as the days wore on with the fugitive group, the gravity of the situation became clearer and clearer. She says at some points while the men were eluding capture, she and Laura thought they were going to die, perhaps in a car crash.
Brittany says she did talk to Laura about running from the situation.
“Was there any point you said, ‘Laura why don`t you run’?” FOX 17’s Jennifer Dowling asked.
“Yes, there was times we didn’t know how to handle the situation or what to do. We wanted to go home, we did miss our families. On the other hand, that was our boyfriends you know? It was a hard decision to figure out what to do.”
Then, came their stop in Canon City Colorado where the fugitives were staying in a hotel room.
Brittany says she and Laura were still discussing leaving the situation at that time. Ironically, she says they were talking about what they should do almost moments before they were stopped in that stolen car and then captured outside a Canon City gas station.
The men were captured at the nearby hotel. However, the girls were unaware what happened to their boyfriends. After the arrest, the gravity of the situation hit Brittany the hardest. For the first time in two weeks, she was alone, in a strange state.
“I felt like I was alone kind of, and I was just thinking about who knew what was going on, I was scared because I didn`t know the outcome. I Laura and I got caught, but I wasn`t sure if Ken and Greg were. Were they ok? So, I was kind of emotional about that. I don`t know, just scared about what was going to happen to me,” Rector recalled.
When she was released on bond in Colorado, another flood of emotions came.
“It was a relief, I was surprised those first couple days when I got released, it was a big emotional roller coaster…all these swings and dealing with everybody back home. It was just really emotional,” says Brittany.
Rector is still coming to terms with how she feels about Kenneth Grauman II, even as she is required to testify against him as part of her bond release.
:Because of the drugs were you ever scared of Kenneth?” Jennifer Dowling asked.
“No…no I don`t think he would hurt me whatsoever,” Rector stated.
“Can we now call Kenneth your ex boyfriend?” Dowling asked.
“No comment.”
Rector says she’s very sorry for the pain she may have caused others. She wants to beat her addiction and prove to her critics she is changing.
“I guess I`m just going to have to prove the people that think negative of me that I am a good person and can do better,” says Brittany.
Part of Brittany’s process of moving forward is her work toward a GED. She has already started the testing needed to achieve that goal.
She is also trying to start doing some positive hobbies such as learning to cook and bake.
She says she is putting on some weight after the meth addiction had caused a dramatic weight loss. She says she eventually wants to go to college and get into nursing to help others. She is also starting to attend NA meetings and says it is good to hear and learn from others who have a similar struggles and can provide a support network.
She wants to warn others about the addictive nature of meth, saying all it takes is one time and you can be hooked on the drug.
She is being more open about her addiction, something she couldn’t admit before. She says it’s a big step in her recovery process.
Rector is due back in court in Colorado in mid-January, where she learns her sentence. She was considered a juvenile in Colorado because she was just 17 when she was captured in Canon City.
