To Eliminate the Stigma of Being Raped
March 4 -- Bridget Kelly, 26, was kidnapped by a stranger, robbed, raped, shot repeatedly and left for dead. When she learned the rape was considered too shameful to mention in media accounts, she wanted to tell her whole story. So she enlisted the help of a newspaper columnist — her own father.
For Michael Kelly, it may have been the hardest story he ever wrote. But together, they publicized her painful story to show other rape survivors they don't need to suffer in silence.
It started at 3 a.m. on a summer morning nearly two years ago when Bridget, a first-grade-teacher, was alone in her apartment in Killeen, Texas. A young man — a complete stranger — kicked in the door to her apartment, wielding a gun and demanding money. They headed for a nearby ATM, where she withdrew $200.
She hoped that would be the end of it, but her abductor forced her back to the car at gunpoint, and drove her farther away from her home.
She was frightened. She tried to talk with him, saying she was a teacher. She asked him, "Were there any stories that were special to you when you were a little boy?"
"I really loved Peter Rabbit," she said. "Do you know that one?"
"I was thinking maybe he's going to rape me; maybe he's going to kill me," Bridget told ABCNEWS' Charles Gibson.
A Will to Live
They arrived at an empty field beside a subdivision, where the man told her to take off her clothes. She obeyed, but then bolted and ran. The man quickly caught her, then told her to lie down.
"As I was getting down on the ground, I said in a calm voice, 'I'm going to give this to God. I'm giving this to God as an acknowledgement that this is so far beyond what I can handle.' And I got down on the ground and he raped me."
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