A student in the US has spoken for the first time about an attack that left her unresponsive and severely injured in her dorm room. NBC News, quoting the family of Isabella Willingham, said in a report that she stopped breathing on her own for 23 minutes after the attack. The 21-year-old said neither she nor the police have been able to piece together what happened when her roommate found her unresponsive with bruises in November. She is now working towards raising awareness about lack of protection for students at Asbury University, where she was studying when the attack took place.
“I believe God spared me because my mission is to now bring light to the safety issues on campus. The students definitely need way more protection than they’re getting,” Ms Willingham told NBC News.
“I want what happened to me to draw attention to the fact that Asbury needs more cameras on all of their exits and entryways,” she added.
Ms Willingham said she still couldn’t remember what happened to her on November 27, and that the injuries were severe enough that it left her memory fragmented.
However, Ms Willingham insisted that she never left her dorm room on the day of the incident.
A rape kit and toxicology report from that night show that Willingham was not sexually assaulted and “found nothing of concern”, as per the NBC News report.
“It was probably a group of girls. I barely talked to anyone. I knew like three people on campus. Like, I never left my room I just feel like it was girls because I only knew girls,” she said.
Ms Willingham said she feels “violated” and doesn’t want to go back to Asbury till the culprit is caught.
