N.Z. tourist raped in U.S.

Press, 13 November 1981, Page 1

N.Z. tourist raped in U.S.

NZPA Tallahassee, Florida A young New Zealand woman who was raped, choked, bludgeoned, and left for dead in woods outside Tallahassee was now reported in a satisfactory condition yesterday at a Tallahassee hospital, the authorities reported. The woman, aged 20, was admitted to Tallahassee Memorial Regional Medical Centre in a serious condition on Tuesday after the attack. “She is doing real, real well,” said a hospital spokes : man, Mr Robert Lovell, yesterday.

The New Zealand police, notified by the Leon County authorities, got in touch with the woman’s family on Wednesday. A Leon County sheriff spokesman, Mr Richard Simpson said her parents were trying to scrape together money for an airfare and arrange visas. Meanwhile, a fund was established at a Tallahassee bank to help pay for .the airfare, and Tallahassee residents offered transport and rooms for the parents, as well as clothing and companionship for the victim. Even though she was badly

injured when a passerby discovered her on the side of the road north-west of Tallahassee, the woman gave the police some information about the attack, Mr Simpson said. He said she graduated recently from a nursing school in Auckland, and decided to take a United States tour before beginning her career. She planned to make the trip by hitch-hiking and staying at youth hostels, a common way to travel in Europe, Mr Simpson said. "I guess no one told her

about the United States." he said. The trip began in Virginia about two months ago and took her to Panama City in the Florida panhandle, Mr Simpson said. "She decided she wanted to tour New Orleans and decided to hitch-hike there by herself. She accepted a ride from a man about 7 a.m.” he said. Mr Simpson said instead of driving west to New Orleans, the man drove east to Tallahassee, then to a wooded area where he raped her, and tried to strangle her.

The man apparentlydragged the woman about 70 metres into woods and hit her on the head with a cement slab, Mr Simpson said. "She somehow managed to get up and reach the edge of Gearhart Road, where people spotted her and called the Sheriff’s Department,” he said. The address for the fund established to help pay the airfare from New Zealand for the parents of the rape victim is “New Zealand Girl. Florida State Bank, P.O. Box 3926. Tallahassee, Fla., 32303.