After enduring a brutal attack, the victim -- a mother of three and grandmother -- played dead. Her daughter believes it saved her life and got her the help she needed at the hospital.
It was inside an abandoned warehouse next to a playground on busy Queens Lane near Lillian Street where Gaby Trevino says her mother, Juanita Trevino, was viciously attacked Thursday night.
"I couldn't even recognize her at all. It was horrible," Gaby Trevino said.
The 50-year-old walked the few blocks from her home to a gas station and encountered a man who had just bought some beer.
"He asked to use her cell phone," Trevino said.
Then, according to Pasadena police, he forced her across the street to the warehouse where she barely made it out alive.
"He wanted to sexually assault her and she said no. He said he would take it from her and she fought as hard as she could," Trevino said.
With severe stab wounds, she played dead.
"So he would leave her alone. I guess once he thought she wasn't breathing no more, he thought it was good to leave," Trevino said.
The gas station was able to pull the man's picture from surveillance video. Trevino hopes people pay attention so that no one else suffers like her mother has.
"I hope they catch him," she said. "This could have been anybody's mother, this could've been somebody's daughter, somebody's sister. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. It's just not right."
Juanita Trevino spent two and a half days here in the hospital. She has a fractured jaw and broken eye sockets. Her throat was cut and she was stabbed.
Right now, she's back at home, recovering.
Crime Stoppers will pay up to $5,000 for any information called in to the 713-222-TIPS (8477) or submitted online at www.crime-stoppers.org that leads to the filing of felony charges or arrest of the suspect(s) in this case. Tips can also be sent by text message. Text TIP610 plus your tip to CRIMES (274637). All tipsters remain anonymous.
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