Woman left for dead after sexual assault saved by 'guardian angels'

NORTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Sandy Springs police are searching for a man who they say sexually assaulted a woman and then slashed her with a switchblade.

The victim, whom we are not identifying, told Channel 2’s Mike Petchenik that she had been walking through an office complex early on the morning of Oct. 19, when the man approached her and started to make small talk.

“He reached in and grabbed my breasts inappropriately,” she told Petchenik. “I looked at him and he did it two or three more times.”

She said the man pushed her to the ground and tried to remove her pants.

“I was on my back, on the concrete, and he was dragging me on my feet,” she said.

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As she began to scream at the top of her lungs, she said, the man pulled out a switchblade knife. When she tried to grab it, her hand was badly cut.

“There are hundreds, plural, of stitches. It cut through the muscle, tendons, ligaments, nerves, and I nicked an artery,” she said. “That’s how my hand got sliced up, but I also think that’s what saved me. He didn’t get what he was after.”

As she lay bleeding on the ground, she said, the man walked off into the early morning darkness. She ran to Georgia 400 and Hammond Drive, hoping to flag down help, and it didn’t take long.

Brothers Dan and Pete Poisson were driving to work and had just gotten off the highway when, they told Petchenik, they saw the woman.

“The young lady was out in the street, waving her arms,” Dan Poisson said. “Saw that she was bleeding really badly.” %

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The Poissons, who both work in hospital settings, immediately stopped to help.

“I grabbed her and tried to calm her down and tried to put the pressure on her wound,” Dan Poisson said.

Pete Poisson called 911 and told Petchenik he kept an eye out for the attacker.

“God put us where we were supposed to be,” Pete Poisson told Petchenik. “We’ve been trained on how to do things and help people, and it’s just our nature that we go out and help folks.”

The victim told us she hoped to be able to thank the Poissions in person, so after the interview, Petchenik reunited her with the men.

“I told my brother on the way down here, ‘We need to see her. I hope they’re going to bring her,’” Dan Poisson said. “It’s fantastic to see her.”

Pete Poisson echoed the sentiment after giving the woman a big hug.

“I’m glad she’s up and about and she’s looking good and things are working out for her,” he said.

Police told Petchenik they have very few leads about the identity of the attacker. He was wearing jeans with holes in them and claimed to be a security guard, but other than that, police told Petchenik, they have a very vague description of the attacker. They ask anyone with information on the case to give them a call.

Cox Media Group