Hostage victim talks about her escape

(WTNH) - The woman held hostage for hours by her estranged husband talked about her ordeal on Good Morning America this morning.

Nancy Tyler was allegedly kidnapped by her estranged husband, Richard Shenkman, on July 7th. He grabbed her on a Hartford street as she was heading to court for their divorce proceedings. Shenkman brought Tyler back to their South Windsor home and kept her there for the next 12 hours.

"There was no doubt in my mind and by the end when we hit about what I guess was the 12th hour, I was almost ready to let him do it because I was exhausted," said Tyler.

Tyler described after hours of being held hostage by  Shenkman; she couldn't stand up, could barely walk and feared Shenkman would shoot.

"He had my head pressed to the desk, with a gun at my temple, holding my head down; made me beg for something over the phone to police," said Tyler. "[He wanted] the priest to give me last rites because he felt I deserved last rites before I died or to get the police to do something because he could monitor what was happening outside. So if something happened outside, that angered him, then we did a countdown and it was terrifying, terrifying."

Shenkman, accused of burning the couple's beach home in 2007, told Tyler all day long his house was set to explode. But, somehow she managed to loosen the bolt that had her handcuffed to the wall and make a run for it.

"At that moment, it was either stay or die or go. And, I yanked the bolt out of the wall. I ran out of the room and down the hall into another part of the basement because there was a door at the far end of the basement," said Tyler. "I didn't know if it was wired, or not, but it was either die by gun to my head or die going out a door to escape."

Tyler said she mentally got through the day by hanging onto rosary beads in her hand. Shenkman let her get them because he said she would need them. She said she thought about her children and prayed for her safety during the entire ordeal.

Shenkman is scheduled to appear before a judge tomorrow.