‘Mythbusters’ Host Adam Savage’s Sister Says Family Believed Her, But Brushed Claims ‘Under the Rug’

Miranda Pacchiana, the younger sister of the former host of Mythbusters, Adam Savage, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday, claiming that he sexually abused her when they were younger. Pacchiana provided a further message on her organization’s site, Second Wound, in which she explained how her family believed her to a degree. Still, when she opened up to them about what she says she experienced in the 1970s, she didn’t get the reaction she had expected.

When she told her family of the abuse she claims to have suffered, Pacchiana said her family was seemingly “determined to brush [her] trauma under the rug.” She realized over time that what they believed was that “they viewed me as the problem for focusing on the abuse.” In disregarding what she told them, Pacchiana said she was “blindsided.” However, she decided to provide others with something she was unable to find when she was younger in the Second Wound, which is set on being a partner for “every survivor whose family members failed to support them.”

Her statement goes on to say she lost her family as a result of all that transpired between the alleged abuse and the reaction from her family upon learning of it. “While I will always have scars and the abuse still affects me, I have put the pieces of my broken self back together and built a rewarding life,” she stated, noting that her life includes a husband, children and a “circle of devoted friends.” As a response to all she says to have gone through, the Second Wound organization was designed to “examine family responses to the disclosure of child sexual abuse.”

In the lawsuit she filed on Tuesday, Pacchiana says of the abuse that it occurred when she was between seven and 10 years old, with the suit explaining how Savage “would repeatedly rape Miranda Pacchiana and force oral sex upon her.” Since the filing, the special effects designer was quick to issue a response denying all of the allegations. Savage, speaking through his lawyer, said that she is only seeking financial support with this claim and that this isn’t the first time she has attempted something of this nature. In regards to his sister, Savage hopes that she “gets the help she needs to find peace” after he fights what he calls a “groundless lawsuit.” Savage, who is 52 years old, was the original host of Mythbusters along with Jamie Hyneman when the series premiered in 2003.