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Bethany Storro had just bought a pair of sunglasses and
was celebrating a new job when a woman walked up to her with a cup and
said: "Hey pretty girl, do you want to drink this?"
The woman then splashed acid in the cup on Storro, who stumbled in pain
and fell to the ground screaming. She felt agonizing pain as the skin on
her face bubbled and sizzled and portions of her blouse disintegrated.
"It was the most painful thing ever," Storro, 28, said
Thursday. "My heart stopped. It ripped through my clothing the instant
it touched my shirt; I could feel it burning through my second layer of
skin."
Police are seeking the woman in the Monday attack as Storro, with her
head wrapped in white bandages, recounted Thursday how only days before,
she had been celebrating a new job and a recent move to Vancouver,
Washington, from Idaho. The reports were carried by The Oregonian newspaper
and KGW-TV.
But she insisted that she would not let the attack in Vancouver wreck
her life, and laughingly marveled how her eyesight was spared just minutes after
she bought those sunglasses.
Storro said she had spinal meningitis twice as a child, which robbed her
of most of her hearing.
"Oh my gosh, to be hard of hearing and blind? That would drive them
nuts," she said, laughing and pointing at her parents, Joe and Nancy
Neuwelt. "They have to be in the same room for me to hear them. I'm
just so glad it's a miracle."
Doctors at Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland performed surgery on
Storro's face Wednesday night, removing dead skin from the areas that were
most deeply injured.
Her mother said Storro was getting something out of her car before
heading into a Starbucks when the woman approached her with the cup. Storro
told police the attacker was a black woman with slicked-back hair in a
ponytail, wearing a green top and khaki pants.
"I have never, ever seen this girl in my entire life," Storro
said. "When I first saw her, she had this weirdness about her _ like
jealousy, rage."
After the attack, the woman ran off. A passer-by called police using
Storro's cell phone.
Dr. Nick Eshraghi, a burn surgeon who operated on Storro, said it was an
acid as strong as hydrochloric or sulfuric acid.
Storro said she wanted to find her assailant and ask: "Why?"
Was it was a dare, or did the woman wake up Monday morning and tell herself
that today, she was going to "carry some acid in a cup and throw it on
the first person I see?" Storro said.
Storro said she has received letters and e-mails from people all over
the country, and has been relying on her friends, family and faith to get
her through this ordeal.
Nancy Neuwelt called the attack "an act of evil." Joe Neuwelt
said the family hopes the attacker is found, but is focused on Storro's
recovery.
"You can imagine how I feel," Joe Neuwelt said. "This is
my little girl. We're going to get through this we're not going to allow
this to stop our lives. We're going to get through it."
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