Why not run for safety?

In the first church I ever pastored, there was a woman in the congregation who regularly got the crap kicked out of her by her husband and her adult daughter. They would beat on her like a pro-wrestling tag team.
And she stuck around for years, enduring this abuse. Even after she told me about the abuse, it was like pulling teeth to get her to agree to leave, to find a shelter and get her life back.
She had her reasons, she said. No driver's license, an older, mentally challenged daughter to care for, no job and no money. Plus, the beatings had gone on so long that I suspect she felt that maybe she deserved them.
It took every bit of ccourage she had to pack up her stuff, her daughter and make it to shelter.
She made a new life for herself after years of getting knocked around.
And yet I still wonder "Why?'' Why not get free?
It's the same thing we wonder about Shawn Horbeck, the kid kidnapped four years ago.
He was left alone a lot. He could have picked up a phone, run like hell, stopped a cop, a stranger, anything.
Fear, though, can do horrible things to the spirit.
Safe at last, maybe Shawn can again know what it is to feel strong, and brave.
It's the same prayer I prayed for that poor sad woman so many years ago.