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Dale Huffman: 1990 rape victim would like to thank her 'angel'
Monday, July 21, 2008
She was 27 years old when it happened in the dark of night in a picnic area behind a church on Harshman Road.
The woman, blind in one eye, and with limited vision in the other, was abandoned there just before dawn on Feb. 8, 1990 without her glasses, her jewelry, her shoes, her winter coat.
She was 5 foot 1 at the time, weighed 115 pounds, and says that during that night of terror the four men who abducted her and gang-raped her also stripped away her dignity and self respect.
The Fairborn woman is now 45, and in the 14th year of a "good marriage to a fine man" she says. "Yet, I am still under psychiatric care and I still have flashbacks and nightmares."
Her voice tremulous, and fighting back tears she said, "It never goes away."
The four men, who ranged in age from 21 to 25, are still serving time in Ohio prisons for convictions on charges of rape, robbery and kidnapping.
The reason she called me, and decided to rekindle the internal fires of the personal tragedy is to track down and thank a man she thinks of as her "angel."
The man who found her wandering alongside Harshman Road early that morning was driving a dark pickup truck, she said.
"Suddenly it just appeared," she said. "He opened the door of the truck and this voice softly asked me if I needed help. He said I had been stumbling along the curb, and almost fell in front of his truck. He kept asking. 'Are you OK?' "
She continued, "I was hysterical, but he was so calm, so kind. He kept saying to me, 'You will be fine. Hang in there, you will make it. His voice was, well, father-like."
The man delivered her to the Riverside police headquarters where she said officers quickly arranged for her to go to the emergency room at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base hospital for treatment.
"In all the confusion the police never recorded the name of the truck driver," the woman said. "In later times I felt like I wanted to thank this man for helping me. I honestly feel he saved my life. I just think about it so much and it means a lot to me."
According to the woman, she met one of her attackers for the first time that night in a Fairborn night club where she went with a girlfriend.
"When the bar closed I decided to go with the guy for breakfast. Then when we got to his car I was forced into the back seat and found there were three other men involved. I was in the middle in the back, and two other men in the front."
She said the four drove to an automatic bank teller machine where they forced her to tell them her identification code number. She said they removed $85 from her account and also stole three rings in her purse.
"They were rough and knocked me around," she said.
A few days later she said one of the men was stopped by police after a high-speed chase. "The first thing the driver told police was that he didn't know anything about the rape of the Fairborn woman," she said. "Later I was able to identify him through his voice, and he then gave police the name of the other three suspects. Three pleaded guilty, and the fourth went to trial and was convicted."
She said one of the four, with the help of a prison social services advocate, has since sent her letter of apology.
The woman said the letter made her feel a bit better. "I do forgive them," she said. "I feel God wants us to forgive others for what they have done. No matter how terrible it is. "
Even though she is forgiving, she says the crime lives with her every day.
"The old me died on that day, and a new me was born. I now live with this memory and I cannot make it go away."
That's the big reason why it would mean a lot to her to thank the passing driver who found her and helped her those years ago.
"It's a long shot, but I hope the man, or someone who knows who it is, will be in touch and I will get a chance, at last, to let him know how much I appreciate the kindness."
Dale Huffman wants your suggestions and story ideas. He'd like to share a story about you, your family, or a friend. This column is for you. Send e-mail to dhuffman@DaytonDailyNews.com or write to Dale at 1611 S. Main St. Dayton, OH 45409. Fax: (937) 225-2489. Phone: (937) 225-2272.
