This is a story so strange, so crazy, so incomprehensible that you don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Once a trailblazing astronaut, Lisa Nowak's career took a dramatic turn after she drove 1,500 km to confront her ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend in a shocking confrontation.
Nowak was once hailed as the ideal American woman, according to NASA's records. After graduating from the Naval Academy, she became a fighter pilot and was selected by NASA in 1996 as part of its astronaut program. In 2006, she served as a mission flight engineer on the Space Shuttle Discovery, operating the robotic arm for several spacewalks during a 13-day mission.
She was married and had three children, but over the years, she became romantically involved with a male astronaut after intensive training with him for a space mission. Her marriage 'went south' as she continued her adulterous affair with the male astronaut, William Oefelein. But then Oefelein told her he had fallen in love with another woman, Coleen Shipman, and he broke up with Nowak. This really sent Nowak's life into a tailspin.
She couldn't accept the break up. She called Oefelein several times a day. She became so enraged that she hatched a plot to kidnap and murder Shipman. Nowak was in Houston, Texas and Shipman was in Florida. Nowak gathered together a wig, pepper spray, a BB gun, rope, trash bags, handcuffs and an 8-inch knife and drove over 900 miles to Florida. She was in such a hurry that she wore incontinence diapers to avoid bathroom breaks during the long trip to Orlando, Florida.
She waited for Shipman to come off a plane flight at Orlando airport. As Shipman got into her car Nowak begged her for a ride. She sprayed Shipman with pepper spray and tried to kidnap her. Shipman was able to drive away and call police, who arrested Nowak on charges of kidnapping and attempted murder.
Nowak was immediately fired from NASA and discharged from the US Navy. She was sentenced to one year probation. The case attracted worldwide media attention. Her life and career were both shattered. From Navy officer, fighter pilot, wife, mother and one of the most admired women in America, to complete disgrace, it was a dramatic fall for a woman who was praised as the 'perfect American Woman'.
There is a saying among detectives who investigate terrible, senseless crimes:
"The heart has its reasons that reason cannot know." It's actually a modern day paraphrase of the biblical Jeremiah 17:9:
"The heart is deceitful and very wicked. Who can understand it?"
What's your verdict? Laugh or cry?