Woman who killed rapist tells her supporters: 'God loves me'

Posted Thursday, November 30, 2006

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She was in a life-or-death struggle just three weeks ago.

An attacker had broken into the 38-year-old woman's house, raped her and threatened her 7-year-old daughter. The woman stabbed her assailant to death with a butcher knife after a violent struggle that lasted up to 30 minutes.

Oh my God," the woman said in a dramatic call to 911. "I can't believe this is happening."

Now she's out of the hospital, living with an aunt and trying to put her life back together. She wrote a letter to well-wishers a few days ago, signing it the "Girl from Ballground."

"From where I was three weeks ago, my physical injuries are healing quite well," she writes. "My doctors are amazed at how well I have recovered at this point. My answer to them is that God loves me and he really does answer prayers!!"

A friend, Kim Chester, gives the note to people who ask about her.

"I would like to let you know your power of prayer has been awesome," the woman says in the letter. "My wish list for Christmas is that I continue to recover and people pray that I find safe and stable housing so that I may start my life anew ... ."

Authorities say Gerald A. Lee, who knew the woman in high school, broke into her house in the woods of Cherokee County after dark on Nov. 5. They say he raped her and threatened to rape her daughter, who's almost 8. The woman stabbed Lee in a struggle that left her with more than two dozen stab wounds and hundreds of stitches.

Friends say the attack injured her hands so badly that she can't return to work as a hairstylist for at least several weeks. A tendon in her right hand was damaged. A pin holds one bone in her left hand together.

"Her hands are still bad," said Chester, a friend of 13 years.

Since the assault, the woman's daughter and a teenage son have been in foster care. Chester said a hearing is scheduled for next week to determine whether the children can go home with their mother.

Chester said the rented home where her friend was attacked is too full of painful memories for her and scary ones for her daughter.

"It was hard for her when she went back to make sure all of her things were moved out," Chester said.

Friends have helped the woman open a bank account under the name "A Mother's Love" at Bank of America. Donors have contributed about $300 so far. Chester also built a Web page — a-motherslove.tripod.com — with information about how people can help the woman.

"I could only hope and pray that I could be as strong as her," Chester said, "but I think any mother would."

Chester said her friend believes her daughter saved her life — not the other way around.

"With everything as brutal as it was she knew 'I've got to live for my baby,' " she said.

At the HeadHunters Hair Salon on Canton Road in northeast Cobb County, which Chester manages, a Christmas tree is decorated purple and white. The colors symbolize campaigns supporting efforts to end violence against women. Customers and employees have put donations in white envelopes on the tree. Chester signed hers "the Girl from Canton."

Chester said her friend remembers Lee from high school and never suspected he would be capable of such violence.

"There's nothing she could have done to provoke it," she said.

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