Sexual Assault

(Sometimes, I try to be funny on this page. Oftentimes, I use sarcasm. There shall be absolutely no humor or sarcasm in this post.)

Last night, a little after midnight, I heard screaming outside, obviously non-playful. Instinctively, without thinking, without shoes, I grabbed my phone and ran outside to find a terrified young woman running toward the street as a car without headlights sped away. From my front porch steps, I called to her, "Are you OK?" In between screams, she said that she was OK but the driver tried to rape her. I immediately called for Robyn to come outside to console this poor young woman (she certainly didn't need a man trying to comfort her) while I called 911.

I explained the situation to the operator and gave a vehicle description (silver Mazda 5) and what direction the rapist was headed (east on Cedar, heading towards Hamilton Ave). A very impressive CPD officer arrived a few minutes later, and the whole story came out.

She was downtown, walking from point A to point B, when the rapist pulled over to the curb and asked her if she needed a ride. She accepted the ride to point B, but the rapist didn't have point B in mind as their ultimate destination. He drove past point B, headed to a yet-to-be-determinted point C.

As he drove, he grabbed her by the hair and told her to give him you-know-what. She said no, he punched her in the face (leaving a very noticable mark on her left side), and she gave in. What else was she to do? Of course, you-know-what was ultimately not enough for the rapist. How he ended up driving to the piece of land across the street from me? No idea.

While across the street, she tried to escape from the car, but the door wouldn't open. The foreward-thinking rapist had the child safety locks in place. What else could she do? She dove out the window and screamed. Of course, this pathetic rapist sped away as she cried for help.

Help truly came in the loving arms of my wife, who held her, calmed her down, prayed with her, and gave her refuge on our front porch while waiting for the police and through the police investigation. At first, I was thinking about how Robyn's time at Pregnancy Care helped prepare her for a situation like this. Then, I thought about her background in psychology and how that probably helped as well. The more I think about it, however, is that these experiences may have aided a bit in this situation, but the truth is that Robyn is just such an amazing, loving, caring, sensitive woman. With or without Pregnancy Care and a Pysch degree, I cannot imagine a better person for this young woman to run into than my beautiful wife.

The young woman's name is Leslie. She seems to be a really nice young woman. My heart is broken that she had to experience such a horrible evening. Say a prayer for Leslie. And maybe pray also that the rapist is found and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.