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48 HOURS
Air Date: Saturday, May 31, 2014
Time Slot: 10:00 PM-11:00 PM EST on CBS
Episode Title: "LIVE TO TELL: ONE LAST HUG"
[NOTE: The following article is a press release issued by the aforementioned network and/or company. Any errors, typos, etc. are attributed to the original author. The release is reproduced solely for the dissemination of the enclosed information.]

A FINAL EMBRACE FROM A FORMER BOYFRIEND LEFT A COLLEGE STUDENT NEAR DEATH WITH 32 STAB WOUNDS - NOW SHE RELIVES THAT FATEFUL NIGHT IN "48 HOURS: LIVE TO TELL: ONE LAST HUG"

SATURDAY, MAY 31, 2014, 10:00 PM, ET/PT

Melissa Dohme agreed to meet a former boyfriend for one last hug before they broke up forever. The decision nearly cost her everything. In an instant, she was stabbed 32 times and left for dead.

She didn't die and now Dohme recounts that fateful night and her fight to live in 48 HOURS: LIVE TO TELL: "One Last Hug" anchored by correspondent Troy Roberts to be broadcast Saturday, May 31, 2014 (10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

48 HOURS: LIVE TO TELL: "One Last Hug" is the inspiring story of one woman's battle back from a brutal attack and one that also further exposes the growing dangers of dating and breakup violence.

"I heard a click, I didn't know what the sound was, he just started stabbing me with that knife," Dohme tells 48 HOURS: LIVE TO TELL.

"He said that he just wanted a hug, that's all he wanted," she says. "A final goodbye, all he wanted was closure, and I basically walked outside to my own murder."

Like many, Dohme, then 20, struggled to end an abusive relationship. Her ex-boyfriend, Robert Lee Burton, Jr., came from a fractured home, she tells 48 HOURS. The relationship started out lovingly, but he turned bad. There were signals, she says, noting an incident before the knife attack where he tried to strangle her.

"He told me that if I was to tell anyone, he would kill me and my mom," Dohme says. "And I was so fearful that I - I remained quiet."

Dohme says Burton told her if she ever broke up with him he would come back and kill her. The couple eventually split up and remained apart for a few months until Burton began calling her again. He woke her up one night with a phone call. She begged him to leave her alone. He begged for one last hug.

"It just seemed kind of pathetic, and I really just wanted to get it over with so I can go back to sleep," Dohme says. "So I reluctantly agreed."

The decision to meet Burton on Jan. 24, 2012 would change her life forever. By agreeing to see Burton in front of her home, Dohme became one more name on a list of women hurt - or killed - through dating and breakup violence.

A police officer responding to the scene had never seen so much blood and didn't believe Dohme would survive until EMS arrived. She was flown by helicopter to a local trauma center where her heart stopped multiple times.

Police, EMS, doctors and Dohme's family describe learning of the attack, her treatment and the hunt for her attacker, ex-boyfriend Burton. Dohme also relives the troubled relationship, her miraculous recovery, facing her attacker in court, and how this horrific event led her to find true love. Dohme also talks about how she found a new purpose in her life.

"I would have never have thought ever, ever in a million years that on this night that totally changed my life - it was the most horrific thing anyone could ever have gone through - something beautiful comes out of it," Dohme says.

LIVE TO TELL is a short-run series from the producers of 48 HOURS delivering first-hand accounts of extraordinary people who refuse to give up when facing death. 48 HOURS: LIVE TO TELL: "One Last Hug" is produced by Liza Finley. Gregory F. McLaughlin is the producer editor. Judy Tygard is the series creator and senior producer. Susan Zirinsky is the senior executive producer.

Chat with members of the 48 HOURS team during the broadcast on Twitter and Facebook. Follow 48 HOURS on Instagram.

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