ATLANTA – Since being kidnapped and allegedly raped in September, a University of West Georgia student has come forward recounting how she escaped her alleged abductor.
11Alive first reported her story on Sept. 5, 2017, after police located and saved the student at a Midtown Kroger off Monroe Drive. Now, four months later she is coming forward with her story.
The victim’s attorney, Rod Dixon, confirmed she is suing Kroger for the lack of security at the time of her abduction in Carrolton.
Police said she was kidnapped at knifepoint just before 3 a.m. at a Kroger in Carrolton before being forced into her own car.
Surveillance video showed the moments leading up to the attack and photos show the suspect, 28-year-old Timothy Wilson, walking around the store in a bucket hat before the attack.
The victim told BuzzFeed News Wilson forced her into her own car and then asked her how to get to Atlanta. On the way there, he stopped the car behind a church and allegedly sexually assaulted her, Atlanta Police Department Captain Brian Schiffbauer told 11Alive in September.
The victim told BuzzFeed News that she pleaded with him but he said, “no purpose in crying.”
After the assault, Wilson asked for directions. The victim asked for her phone so she could look them up.
"She used her cell phone to alert her family. Her family was able to get in contact with our 911 center and let our officers know where she was," Schiffbauer said.
The victim told BuzzFeed News she turned the brightness on her phone down and contacted texted her boyfriend who alerted police.
“I immediately realized it was serious,” her boyfriend told BuzzFeed News. “She would never play like that. She would never say that for no reason.”
She was able to drop a location pin and told him to look out for her car. Because of her quick thinking, police tracked her location to the Kroger in Midtown, which is over a 50-mile drive.
An officer canvassing the area spotted the victim’s stolen car and when Wilson saw police, he reportedly took off in the vehicle and crashed into multiple cars in the parking lot.
After 10 hours, Wilson was caught by police. He remains in an Atlanta jail and charged with rape, aggravated sodomy, false imprisonment and aggravated assault against a police officer. Carrollton Police placed additional charges on him of kidnapping, hijacking of a motor vehicle and aggravated assault.
According to BuzzFeed News, Wilson took the victim there to rob it but decided to wait until later because a security guard was outside. She is now suing Kroger because she felt the kidnapping could have been prevented if there was the same security level at the Carrolton Kroger as the Midtown one.
“He’s taken a lot away from my life and it doesn’t need to happen again,” she told BuzzFeed News. “It shouldn’t have happened in the first place.”
