A kidnapping victim’s harrowing 911 call in 2016 launched an investigation that ended with the arrest of a serial killer who admitted to killing five women, leaving a veteran Ohio detective, police officer and 911 caller with the case they will remember forever .

“I don’t want to forget this case. I don’t want anyone to forget,” said Kim Mager, a now-retired Ashland Police Department detective who worked the infamous case. “These women could have been anyone. This could have been me.”

The full ’20/20′ episode ‘Meet the Other Me’ premieres on Friday, November 22 at 9pm ET on ABC and streams on Hulu the following day.

The investigation began on September 13, 2016, when a kidnapping victim was rescued after making the disturbing 911 call.

“It’s chilling,” Sara Miller, who worked as a 911 operator for 26 years, reflected in her first broadcast interview about the memorable phone call with ABC News’ John Quiñones.

Miller said the caller, whom authorities called Jane Doe to protect her privacy, spoke in a whisper and said she was being held captive in a house near a laundromat and that her kidnapper was sleeping next to her.

Miller directed officers to where she believed the caller was. ‘They can’t just raid a house. What if he woke up with a gun and hurt her?” said Molenaar.

Officer Curt Dorsey rushed to the scene and made sure his patrol car’s siren remained turned off so he wouldn’t alert the perpetrator.

“We tried to be inconspicuous,” Dorsey told Quiñones. “We were told the suspect was sleeping, so we wanted to get closer and not make any noise.”

When Dorsey and his partners arrived on the scene, they saw two nearly identical houses on the property. Miller remained on the phone with Jane Doe asking questions about where she was being held so she could relay the information to officers and determine her exact location.

As Dorsey walked past the houses, he saw Jane Doe’s hand on a window. She had managed to loosen her bonds. Officers carried out the daring rescue 19 minutes after arriving on the scene.

“I saw her outstretched hand through a window, and at that moment I knew she was in there,” Dorsey recalled. “I would have gone through the wall to get her.”

Authorities later learned that Jane Doe was able to take her kidnapper’s phone, but that her kidnapper had removed the doorknob in the bedroom, making it impossible for her to leave the room without waking him. When she heard the police on the scene, she was able to escape the bedroom and walk towards a window.

The perpetrator, identified as 40-year-old Shawn Grate, was arrested at the scene.

Mager was called to Ashland Police Headquarters to interview both Jane Doe and Grate.

Mager learned through her conversations that Jane Doe met Grate at a local community center and the two became friends. Jane Doe was reading the Bible when Grate suddenly attacked her.

“I tried to push him away and get up. I just did everything, I tried to kick and punch. But everything I did, he just did it a lot harder,” Jane Doe said.

Mager then asked Grate about what Jane Doe reported. She would talk to him for 33 hours over eight days.

Through a less impressive approach and empathy, Mager was able to get Grate to speak openly.

Not only did he admit to kidnapping and sexually assaulting Jane Doe, Grate eventually confessed to killing five women: Candice Cunningham, Elizabeth Griffith, Stacy Stanley, Dana Lowrey and Rebekah Leicy.

“You start to realize how productive it is or could be,” Mager said of the confession.

The bodies of Griffith and Stanley were later found on the property where Jane Doe was being held captive.

Stanley’s family remembered her as very loving and as a fighter, in an interview with ’20/20′.

“My mother didn’t deserve that,” said Stanley’s youngest son, Kory Stanley. “None of the women didn’t deserve that.”

“We cried and cried because we had come to the conclusion that we would not see our friend again,” said Cindi Mathys, a church friend of Elizabeth Griffith.

Mager said she wrote a book about the investigation, “A Hunger to Kill,” in part to tell the truth about the impact the killings had on surviving family members.

“I’m going to try to make it real enough that people can recognize that this could have been anyone,” Mager said. “Things like this can’t happen and just let us move on to the next scenario.”

The personal story, which captured her chilling conversations with the serial killer, describes how Mager said Grate may have even made her a target.

“Shawn Grate told (a fellow inmate) that he was trying to find my gun on my body, that he thought it would be the ultimate thing to kill me,” Mager told “20/20.”

Grate was convicted of murder in the deaths of Stanley and Griffith, as well as the rape and kidnapping of Jane Doe, in May 2018. He was sentenced to death in that case. In 2019, Grate pleaded guilty to the murders of Cunningham, Leicy and Lowrey. Grate was not charged in connection with the alleged plan to kill Mager.

Eight years after receiving the 911 call, Miller expressed her admiration for Jane Doe and called her brave.

“She did a fantastic job of freeing herself, picking up the phone, calling for help and helping us get him,” Miller said. “Who knows how many other women he might have killed?”