Virginia Woman Survived an Assault. Eight Years Later, Her Perp Found Her on Facebook
Staying silent can be just as dangerous.
Eight years ago, Lorie (@babypaulij) from Virginia was about to get married in two and a half weeks when she was sexually assaulted after a closing shift at work. After years of healing, she told TikTok her perp found her on Facebook.
Traumatized by the incident, Lorie said she told her boss that she no longer thinks she can work for the restaurant because she was afraid of seeing the man’s face again. As a result, her boss called the police, and Lorie was escorted to a place that looked like a clinic. There, she was given a rape kit, which she described as “almost just as violating” as the event she suffered.
“I had to go over what happened in every excruciating, gory detail. I had pictures taken close up and far away of my body, of every mark, cut, and bruise—I was swabbed, touched, and pulled apart, and examined in ways that didn’t even happen to me when I had my own children,” Lorie claimed. Although she reported the incident to authorities, Lorie said she ultimately decided not to press charges.
Not his first victim
“And the reason I’m talking about it now, eight and a half years later, is that the person who did this to me just popped up in my friend suggestions on Facebook, and he’s been in there for the last month,” Lorie alleged. She claimed her perp was a stranger, and they shared no common circles. Nevertheless, the algorithm was suggesting the man, leading Lorie to believe he had been checking her Facebook profile.
“I did a thing, and I researched his name. What came up shattered me completely,” Lorie said. She discovered that she was not the man’s first alleged victim. Two years before her, another woman was allegedly raped by the man. Unlike Lorie, she found out that the victim pressed charges in a different state.
“Apparently, he was on leave from the military when it happened. Now, I cannot find exactly what happened coming out of that,” Lorie continued. Nevertheless, through her research, she found out he was able to stay in service and end up in Virginia. There, he found Lorie and allegedly assaulted her next.
She is now rethinking her decision
“And after what happened, I had to relive it so many times over, and over, and over again to different investigators, even into the woman who did my rape kit,” Lorie said. The experience had left her shaken. When authorities asked whether or not she wanted to press charges, Lorie asked what it would entail.
The authorities told her the man wouldn’t be arrested immediately and that an investigation had to happen first. She then followed up on the question by asking whether her perp would know if she pressed charges. The authorities allegedly responded that the man would be given the charges and her information. Fearing the worst-case scenario, Lorie decided to stay silent. She was afraid that he would be allowed to walk free and take vengeance on her.
“Now, eight and a half years later, I’m finding out that I am not the only person that he did this to. And I’m also being hit with the realization that there is a good chance that he did this to even more people after me,” Lorie alleged. She wondered if pressing charges could have changed the outcome and locked the man up for good.
According to Allen Allen Allen & Allen, in the state of Virginia, felony charges like rape can be prosecuted at any time and have no statute of limitations. After her brush with her perp on Facebook, Lorie says that she is now considering pressing charges. It’s a privilege she still holds, compared to the victims of this prolific serial killer.
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