(Hit tab trying to paragraph break....but pressed too many times and posted the incomplete post. It took over 10 minutes for me to type the rest out, so I couldn't edit. Here is the entirety of what I was trying to write.)
I was kidnapped on Friday night from my apartment complex by a person who has been stalking my family for the last thirteen months along with an accomplice. I was released unharmed two hours later.
We contacted the Sheriff's Department from the get-go when the stalking began.
The stalking included her following myself and my toddler (who was an infant then) around from the library to the park to the supermarket (We live in an apartment complex with a large park and community center across the street, the library and a supermarket on the other side across the street.). We don't own a car and don't drive....so we travel exclusively on foot in our own neighborhood and environs and use the bus when we need to go across town or anywhere not within walking distance.
We were told by the Sheriff's Department that there was nothing that could be done unless she broke the law. I told her from the beginning that I did not want her near me or my family. I alerted library staff to her behavior, they said that there was nothing that they could do.
My neighbors and friends have also seen her on our apartment property countless times over the past year, knocking on our door and peering through binoculars to here from the library across the street.She's verbally told these neighbors that she will kill us, that she'll never be out of our sight.
When she approached my best friend and I while we were in the library last fall, I repeated my request that she leave me and my family alone and that we had no interest in communicating with her and that her behavior made me feel uncomfortable with having her so close to me. We moved to another part of the library and she continued to follow us. I took two photographs of her with my cell phone when she was headed out the door and saved them.
Last Wednesday night, I was in the living room with our daughter playing with her blocks and stood up to pull the blinds down and get ready for bed. She was standing outside brandishing a knife in one hand and beckoning to us with the other. I screamed, she ran and my husband came running out of the bathroom, saw her back and ran out of the apartment and tried to chase her down the stairs and around the complex to the street. She got away and we called 911.
A Sheriff's deputy came and we explained what happened and the entire history about our issues with this woman. I mentioned that I had photographs of this woman and that neighbors and friends had also seen her engaging in her behavior.....he said that wouldn't be necessary. He explained that we could file a restraining order against her if we had her name and an approximate age, but otherwise stated that there was nothing that could be done. He stated that he would ask for extra patrols through our complex and in the streets nearby and to call the Sheriff's again if she reappeared.
On Friday night, she kidnapped me along with a man that I'd never seen before in my life. When they let me out of the car, it was in an unfamiliar neighborhood. I saw the lights on in a house down the street, so I ran and banged on the door and asked that they call 911.
The deputies who responded to the call were dismissive. I wrote a statement, which they took and they went over to my friend and neighbor two doors down to ask her if I was really being stalked.
They asked my husband to step outside of our apartment and asked him if I suffered from being delusional. DH was insulted and said so....that I was very much mentally in control and have never had a mental issue ever.
I was told that a detective would contact me in one or two days regarding the case. I had heard nothing from anyone at the Sheriff's Department by late yesterday afternoon, so my husband and I and my daughter walked over there to inquire on the status of my case. I was told that the case hadn't been assigned to a detective as of yet. I asked when it would be and she stated that it looked to be a "low priority case" and that a detective would be contacting us "in time".
I don't know what to say. This woman is still out there, we're all scared crapless and I don't know what to expect as the case is being investigated. I am also very disturbed by how the deputies behaved.....I understand being skeptical, but hey.....we've contacted the sheriff's department numerous times about this woman and her behavior, our neighbors have done the same.......and they questioned my sanity.
I feel like our hands are tied behind our backs and there is nothing we can do.
What CAN we do? Are their victims resources (counseling for one....I've been unable to sleep much lately and barely since Friday night.....and when I do, its nothing but nightmares and flashbacks when I'm awake.) available?
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