The terrifying true story behind ‘Terror Comes Knocking’
The true-crime catalogue on Netflix is once again sending chills down the spine. And this time, the reason is Terror Comes Knocking: The Marcela Borges Story, which is currently rising on its weekly charts worldwide.
Terror Comes Knocking: The Marcela Borges Story takes viewers back to 2009 when the titular subject was 27 years old and newly pregnant. Although she resided in a gated community in Winter Garden, Florida, with her husband, Rubens Laureano Morais, and their five-year-old son, the privacy was not enough to prevent the horrific incident that changed their lives forever.
According to The Palm Beach Post, Borges’ husband was the then-president of RLM Trucks Carrier. But in November that year, Borges survived a living nightmare when armed masked men broke into their suburban home, demanding $200,000 as they held the family hostage.
Despite explaining that they didn’t have the money on them, Borges was reportedly forced into withdrawing $24,000 from the bank. However, the amount didn’t stop the torture they had to endure in the following days. Nearly 16 years after the nightmare, the true-crime story was adapted into a Lifetime movie, Terror Comes Knocking: The Marcela Borges Story, currently streaming on Netflix.
What is the story behind the film on Netflix?
The incident took place on November 15th when the pair was at home. Borges was enjoying television with their son, Ryan, as Morais worked on payroll. When the bell rang on their front door, they both showed up to open the door together, only to find three gunmen waiting (via Orlando Sentinel). One of them fired at the door while another held Ryan at gunpoint, Morais told the investigators.
The invaders then searched their house upside down, which ultimately led them to Borges and Morais’s safe. Coerced into unlocking it, they even stole $30,000. However, that amount wasn’t enough to satisfy them. In fact, the real horror began right afterwards when they blindfolded the family and drove them to a secluded house in Apopka, ensuring they were separated while held hostage.
The gunmen moved the family back into their home the next morning, still with blindfolds on and roped with duct tape and clothes. Despite her involuntariness, Borges was forced to withdraw $23,600 from the bank. They reportedly blackmailed Borges and Morais, threatening to kill them if they didn’t hand over the money. But even after giving that amount, the blackmail didn’t stop. “Later that night, I could hear my husband crying, a gun going ‘click, click, click’ and the voice of Oscar Diaz-Hernandez,” she told the law enforcement.
How did Marcela Borges escape?
On the third day of their hostage situation, Marcela Borges asked a female kidnapper for a glass of water. The intruder took her into the kitchen downstairs. Seeing an opportunity, she grabbed a kitchen knife and held it to one of their throats to threaten the group of invaders. While she wanted them to call the police, the situation got out of hand, and they began to fight, revealing one of their faces. The person was later identified as Bianca Dos Santos. Following the revelation, Dos Santos allegedly told another gunman that they had to kill the family since they had seen her face.
Dos Santos took Borges back upstairs to shoot her. However, the gun didn’t fire, which led her to beat the mother black and blue in her son’s bedroom. As she overheard the suspects murmuring in the next room, she freed herself and jumped out of the second-story window. Although she was shot in the process, she reached a neighbour’s house and finally rang the police. The gunmen reportedly fled the scene before the police arrived with medical assistance. Both Borges and Morais were saved that day.
Where is she now?
According to Marcela Borges’ Facebook information, the subject of Terror Comes Knocking, she still resides with her family in Winter Garden, Florida. They now have a new addition to their family, Lucas, the baby she was carrying during the terrifying incident. Moreover, she went back to school at Valencia College’s Nursing School-West Camps and the University of Central Florida.