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Three years later, Boston Marathon bombing survivor given back belongings

Posted at 6:53 PM, Oct 26, 2016
and last updated 2016-10-26 23:34:58-04

On April 15, 2013, a Towson preschool teacher was among the hundreds hurt in the bombings near the Boston Marathon finish line.

Erika Brannock was the last of more than 250 people injured to leave the hospital. She was released on June 3, 2013.

For Brannock, every step is a reminder of the deadly attack near the Boston Marathon finish line. She endured multiple surgeries and is now living with a prosthetic leg, but nothing has brought back the memories from that day like seeing the clothes she was wearing and where the pieces of shrapnel pierced her body.

“At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to see my clothes and when I was [at the FBI] I decided I do want to see them. And I saw my shirt that I had on. I had on a Ravens shirt that I loved and I remember being so upset that they cut it. And I saw my jeans, and I saw how shredded and just torn apart they were and oddly enough my left shoe they had kept and being now that I'm an amputee on my left side, it was very emotional seeing my shoe,” Brannock said.

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The FBI held onto the items as evidence, then sent them off to be decontaminated. In September, Brannock was able to pick up her possessions.

“I charged my phone and still had everything on there. I had 67 text messages and over 10 voicemails from that day. I had heard from friends what they had sent to me and all these things,” she said.

Brannock doesn't know what she's going to do with the items but she said she's not ready to see them destroyed.

“It was a weird; it was very emotional, but it was also healing at the same time to kind of come full circle with it,” she said.

Brannock is back teaching at Davenport preschool in Towson. She's also helping the FBI with a new online tool that educates teens about violent extremism, called “Don't be a Puppet.”

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