Imagine, you’re 20 years old, your hopes and dreams before you, no reason to think you can’t achieve them. You study, you work hard, you maintain a 4.0 and are on the Dean’s list every semester. It seems everything you touch turns to gold.
Fast forward 2 years. All year, you’ve had to struggle. Financial aid was inadequate to cover everything. You move off campus to what you think will be better, less expensive living arrangements. But, roommates are wasteful and run up the utility bills making it difficult to afford other things, like food. You get a job, even though your school hours are already overloaded. You sell blood/plasma just to be able to buy groceries. It seems like everything is falling apart, but you still have the 4.0 GPA.
Then, the bottom falls out of your world. You wake up and there is an intruder in your room. You’re scared, but out of sorts because you just woke up. You can’t fight him off. He’s a full grown, 40-something year old man. He overpowers you. The next 16 hours of your life have him drugging and repeatedly beating and raping you. To add insult to injury, he steals your debit card. The police only charge him with kidnapping and credit/debit card theft.
Our youngest daughter does not have to imagine this scenario. She lived it. On 26 December 2017, she was brutally attacked in her room, while her friends were away on Christmas vacation.
She tried to continue on with her job and university courses, but fell into a state of depression and a life ruled by fear and nightmares. She couldn’t sleep, couldn’t function, couldn’t keep up with school work any longer. She left school and came home for her dad and I to try to help her recover from this traumatic experience.
Our daughter is receiving the help that we and professionals can provide for her. While she is healing physically, emotionally there is still much work to do. She wants to put this part of her life behind her and try to move forward. Returning to this university is out of the question.
Our daughter is heavily into the theater. Our town offers community theatre opportunities as does the local junior college, which she attended before leaving for the university. The junior college offers a cosmetology program that she thinks will ultimately help to further her career opportunities in costuming and stage makeup.
There is one glitch – a very big one, that we cannot overcome on our own.
Although the local school has tentatively accepted her, they cannot let her enroll without a copy of her official transcript from the university she was attending when she was attacked. This university has a hold on her transcript because when she withdrew, it left a balance of approximately $5,600. This balance was the stipend provided for living expenses during the semester. The majority of it went to pay the rent at the apartment complex where she was raped. The complex would not let her out of the lease. She has had to continue paying the rent there, although she has not lived there since late February. This stipend was not enough to cover the entirety of the lease agreement. There is money still owed for the months of June and July.
Our daughter did not ask to be attacked and have to leave school. Sometimes life brings other things our way and we have to adjust our plans. No matter what, we have to keep moving forward.
Please help our daughter to keep on the road to recovery. By helping her to pay off the deficit with the university so that they will release her transcript to the local college, and paying out the lease to the apartment complex that did not provide proper security to its tenants, she will be able to put that school, that city, and – maybe someday – that awful attack behind her.
Here are the needs:
$5600 to the university
$1400 to the apartment complex
$ 500 GoFundMe fees
———–
$7500 Total
Thank you for your help in our daughter’s recovery. May our Heavenly Father bless you all for your compassion and assistance. Please click the image below to go to the GoFundMe page.
you are in Texas right? the AG office has a department called victim services. They, if the rape occurred in texas, will pay all those bills for your daughter. if she was out of state contact the state ag’s office where she attended school. YOU should not have to pay!@
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Thank you for this suggestion, Suze. My husband has been in contact with victim services. Since the police report does not, for whatever reason, list the rape, only the kidnapping and debit card theft, the AG said the report was inadequate for her to get their assistance. It seems our girl has been/is battered by the creep that hurt her and the system. It is very frustrating all around. 😦
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there should be a chaplin or a liason from the college, the police and the ag’s office. do not drop this. it is too important. The police memos..the little things they keep their notes in to make the official reports will list the rape. if she had medical records, a copy of those would be sufficient. I used to work for Burnet county victim services, so i know how frustrating it can be. There will be enough evidence for the victims office to enforce payment.
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Thank you, Suze. We’re still waiting to hear back from the hospital that did the rape kit. They have yet to respond, but rest assured, we are NOT going to let this drop.
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What a horrendous experience and to think that the university is adding to her woes!
If worse comes to worse, does she qualify for a student loan?
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Thank you, Jeanne. Yes, their policy in regards to the transcript is adding to her distress, but overall the university has been very good to her. They have made the whole semester go away in regards to the tuition/fees, that sort of thing, like she was never there this semester. This is a good thing because it only leaves her owing the stipend amount. They couldn’t do anything about the stipend that had been paid out to her and already spent (on the rent and some groceries). The school’s policy is to not provide a transcript if there is a balance owed. We’ve asked them to check for any way around this and there apparently is no way around it. Though it is very frustrating, we hold no animosity towards the school. They have been wonderful to her over her couple of years there and have helped her in many ways. I cannot say the same at all for the apartment complex where this horrible thing happened to our baby girl.
She did qualify for student loans while there at the university and that was the source of this stipend that has to be repaid. Unfortunately, over this last year the loans weren’t adequate to cover everything.
As far as student loans for attending the junior college again, we are not sure how that will play out. She has an associates degree already from them (and was in her last semester for her bachelors at the university). Hopefully, financial aid/student loans will be available to her to attend. If not, we’ll have to figure out how to pay for it. We’re working on some ideas for ways to earn money (in addition to this GoFundMe).
Thank you for any prayers you can offer up on all of this. We are all just about ready to explode from all the chaos. Have a blessed weekend.
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Wow! I’m so sorry that had to happen to her. Wow! Such animals out there! I’ll keep her in my prayers, and so as the parents as well, praying God will strengthen you all and heal your daughter in Jesus Name! Much love and blessings! How much can one person donate?
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Thank you so much for your compassion and especially the prayers. We all appreciate them very much. I agree with you, there are animals out there. 😦
I don’t think that there is a limit to what any one person can donate. I haven’t seen anything saying that on the GoFundMe page. As far as I understand it, one can donate however much they like to the various causes there.
Thank you for everything. May our Heavenly Father bless you and your family, too. Have a beautiful day.
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You’re welcome no problem at all! Yes! I pray God deliver there poor souls!
Oh ok cool, thanks for the clarification! 🙂
Amen! Same to you as well in Jesus Mighty Name!
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🙂
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Please know I will hold your family up to the Lord in my prayers. God Bless.
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Thank you. We appreciate the prayers very much. They will make a big difference as we work through this trying time. Have a blessed day.
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Oh, what a terrible ordeal that your daughter went through. So sorry your family is dealing with the trauma, and also the aftermath of the legal things. Hope she gets her transcripts soon, and can go forward with her studies. Prayers for y’all. ❤
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Thank you, Barbara. We appreciate those prayers very much. It has been a difficult ordeal, but I know she will pull through this. She just has to. Have a blessed day. ❤
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Suzanne,
Oh, my heavens! Your poor, poor daughter!! I’m so sorry she had to endure such a nightmare. That guy needs to have the same thing done to him. I hope justice is served. I will keep all things in prayer. With God all things are possible! I shared the GoFundMe page on Twitter and Facebook. Hopefully, it will reach someone’s attention with not only a big heart but a big wallet. God blessings to you all! XO
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Thank you, Cathy. {{{Hugs}}} I agree with you about that creep. I know that, ultimately, Heavenly Father will tend to him and others like him, but it would sure be nice to see justice here on earth, too.
Thank you so much for sharing our cause with your followers. We appreciate it very much and the prayers, too.
Have a blessed day. {{{Hugs}}}
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Oh Suzanne! What a horrifying ordeal for your daughter, and you as her parents! I can’t even imagine … oh God! 😥 Please know I am praying so hard for all of you, that this situation gets resolved, and mostly for your baby girl’s healing. As a mom, I know there aren’t adequate words to describe your feelings, and I know they are visceral. So many hugs for you all! hugs
Do you have links? I didn’t see any in the post. I can’t give much but I can give a little.
<3<3<3
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Thank you so much, Vanessa. The things our baby girl has described to me fill me with both tears and a rage like never before. She is a trooper and is working to get past this awful moment in her life. It hasn’t been easy and there have been some moments of backing up, but she will get through this, thanks to prayers from compassionate friends like you.
Thank you for everything. Here is the link: GoFundMe. Please let me know if that doesn’t work. I’m responding from my phone, so am not sure how it will go through.
Have a blessed day, my friend. (((Hugs)))
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Thank you for the link sweetheart. I wish I could send more. *hugs xoxox
PS – this link is broken, but only because of the quote mark at the end. Take that out, and it works just fine. 🙂
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Thank you, Vanessa, for your generosity. (((Hugs))) I always have trouble making the URLs into links. I think the HTML monsters don’t like me. I think I have it fixed now. 🙂
Thanks for everything. Have a blessed day!
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*hugs ❤ Keeping you and your family covered in prayer, sweetheart. xoxox
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Thank you, my friend. ❤ Hugs. Have a blessed day. It’s birthday day around here for baby girl. 🙂
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