By Donna Westfall – March 1, 2016
She was only 17 years old when she was kidnapped and raped by a serial killer.
For the moment, we are keeping her identity anonymous because of current court cases, and so that her family can maintain their privacy. I’ll call her Ava. She’s in her 40’s.
A call came in today from a Los Angeles Detective. I was sitting across from Ava while she took his call. He asked her about her upcoming schedule because he was making arrangements to fly up to Crescent City to meet with her next week about his current case. The same man that had kidnapped and raped her and served 10 years in prison, had been released. Not long after leaving prison, he kidnapped and raped someone else.
Today he’s in jail.
I asked Ava how she got away. She says that she had attended Sunday School as a child and cried out to God for help; and told the man that whatever he was going through God could help him. He let her go by stopping the car in Big Sur, tossing her clothes out the door and telling her to get out.
Before Ava was snatched from Santa Cruz mall, the serial killer/rapist had taken a couple. He killed the boyfriend. The woman escaped. When asked to testify in court against him, initially the woman agreed. But when it came time to go to court, she said she couldn’t go through with it. She was too scared. The justice system let the serial killer/rapist go. Unbelievable?
Let’s continue with Ava’s story.
“I ran away from an abusive father. I was living on the streets. I did not go immediately to the police or the hospital because I was afraid I would be sent back to my dad. One day I saw a cop give a ticket to the rapist. When the cop walked away from the serial killer/rapist, I went to talk to the cop. I told him my story. They figured out that the name on the ticket was an alias. But they found him and arrested him. I was a witness against him in court. I remember the DA said that I was brave.”
“Even though I was scared and nervous in court and didn’t want to see him, I testified against him. I didn’t want to hear about anyone else suffering at his hands. I wanted to see justice done.”
“As bad as all that was, I faced the man that threatened to kill me and I did the right thing. I will continue to do the right thing and I will have to face him again.”
“In Del Norte County, I feel as though I’m being raped again by the so called Justice System; Judge William Follett, Dr. Tod Roy and the Social Services Agency. They think that because of my traumatic past, that I would marry and put up with abuse by my husband. The truth is, I know the signs and I wouldn’t be afraid to do it again and turn an abusive person in even if it were my husband. The fact is that my husband is a nonviolent, considerate and Godly man.”
End of Part 1
