Where Is Saddam?

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weeks into the war in Iraq, the maid realized something was up when her boss, Saddam Hussein's nephew, told her to bone up on a Tikriti accent so that she wouldn't attract attention as a Baghdadi when the family moved north. Two days later, she says, she found herself in a convoy of cars with Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay, headed for a rendezvous in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, with the Iraqi dictator. The 18-year-old woman, who spoke to TIME on condition of anonymity, was a live-in employee of Farhan Ibrahim Migdal al-Dolaymi, who resided on the Republican Palace grounds near Uday. This is what she says she witnessed of Saddam's flight from the Americans:

On April 3, Qusay arrived at Migdal's house with a group of relatives. The maid overheard them planning to travel in a convoy of old, nondescript cars to a rural area outside Tikrit. She tried to get out of making the trip but was told she knew too much. Two days later, the entourage drove north in 65 cars, staggered in sets of two or three so they would not be conspicuous. Among the passengers was Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, a cousin and trusted aide of Saddam's, who was arrested in Tikrit by U.S. forces last week.

The cars converged on a farm in Tikrit owned by one of Saddam's relatives. The Iraqi leader had arrived separately. Not long after, Saddam drove off with his sons and Mahmud, and returned in an hour without Uday, who, because of infirmities resulting from a 1996 attempt on his life, required special attention.

From the farm, seven cars, carrying among others the maid and Saddam, proceeded to another relative's home in al-Tarmiyah, north of Baghdad, and arrived at 9 p.m. At the gate of the residence, a guard failed to recognize the VIPs, who had disguised themselves in traditional Arab garb. Mahmud pulled out a revolver and shot the guard in the left shoulder. Once inside, the men spent hours discussing strategy. At one point, the maid overheard her boss ordering an aide to gather medicine for Uday and escort him to neighboring Syria. (U.S. officials said last week that Mahmud, under interrogation, claimed that he, Uday and Qusay made their way to Syria but were sent back to Iraq. His interrogators weren't sure the information was true.) At about 1:30 a.m. on April 6, Saddam, Qusay, Qusay's two sons and Mahmud drove off again.

That was the last time the maid saw Saddam. The next day Migdal took her back to the farmhouse in Tikrit to hole up with his wife, three daughters and several bodyguards. On April 8, a day after American forces bombed a site in Baghdad hoping to kill Saddam, the Iraqi leader called the farmhouse. He was looking for guards to help launch surface-to-surface missiles. Later that day, Migdal returned from an outing and began sobbing. "Baghdad is falling!" he cried out. "The army is deserting." U.S. forces seized the capital on April 9 as Saddam statues toppled everywhere. But the man, perhaps, remained standing. On April 24, before the maid was allowed to return to Baghdad, she overheard her boss say Saddam was with Qusay in the Adhamiyah district, incognito in Arab garb and driving an ordinary car.