Police: ‘Acid Attack’ Deemed a Hoax
- Posted on September 16, 2010 at 7:54pm by
Meredith Jessup
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When Bethany Storro appeared on national television with her face covered in bandages, she replayed the details of a horrific attack by a stranger that would leave her scarred for life. But after discrepancies emerged during the subsequent police investigation, Storro has confessed that the entire story was false.
Storro had originally told police that an unknown African-American woman passing her on the street had thrown a cup of acid in her face. But on Wednesday, she admitted to police that her injuries were self-inflicted.
“When I first saw her, [the so-called attacker] had this weirdness about her. Like jealousy, rage,” Storro told reporters following her invented ordeal.
But in a press conference Thursday, Vancouver Police Chief Clifford Cook said her story was invented. ”Ms. Storro admitted her injuries were self-inflicted and the attack itself had not occurred as she had previously reported.”
A purported “copy cat” acid attack took place just days later in Mesa, Ariz. when the victim, Derri Velarde, a 41-year-old mother of five, stepped from her car. ”There was a woman walking from the back side of my car. … She had what I thought was a glass of water in her hand, and then she just stopped abruptly and looked at me and just threw it in my face.”
Velarde was splashed with what she thought might be water, but it turned out to be acid. ”It just instantly was like fire. It started burning intensely, instantly,” she told CBS News from her hospital bed.
There is no evidence to suggest the attack on Velarde was a staged hoax, however. She was left with severe burns on her face and neck, and along her arms.
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Comments (44)
anOpinion
Posted on September 17, 2010 at 4:40amI can‘t believe the posts I’m seeing for this. Try to remember Faith, Hope and Charity, not Judge, Jury, Executioner.
This is obviously a troubled young girl who couldn’t deal with the reality of what she did to herself, probably in a moment of temporary insanity. She is going to be scarred for life physically, but I hope she finds her way through the issues that brought her to do this.
Report Post »Sliver_of_Truth
Posted on September 17, 2010 at 11:25amCouldn’t agree with you more, AnOpinion. So many try to be cute and snarky with their comments with these posts-I appreciate your sense of humanity and common sense. Thanks.
Report Post »PostProgressiveAmerican
Posted on September 17, 2010 at 4:19amThe problem here is that everone sees a story and swallows it hook, line and sinker. Maybe we should watch, listen and wait for the facts to come out before we jump onboard.
Report Post »LadyLibertea
Posted on September 17, 2010 at 12:44amto all the people saying “shame on her for blaming a black woman!” what if she had blamed a white man or a white woman? I doubt anyone would be saying the same thing…stop treating the blacks as victims. SO she blamed a black woman, this woman is clearly mentally unhealthy..she could have just as easily said that a martian threw acid is her face and then inpregnated her with his alien seed. Gimme a break.
Report Post »Obama2010
Posted on September 17, 2010 at 10:16amYou are delusional……she stated that to get sympathy from closeminded folks like you. What about the man who said two black attacked him and his pregnant wife……what about the lady who said two black men attacked her and drove her car in the lake with her kids inside……….what about the man who said a black guy attacked him and his wife but he couldn’t remember what he looked like. Why could they not have said a man or men attacked them answer that before you make your accusations.
Report Post »pinkcadlac
Posted on September 17, 2010 at 12:37pmLADYLIBERTEA You spoke the truth.
Report Post »realchrisjones
Posted on September 17, 2010 at 12:39amThat is unbelievable. I felt so bad for that woman too.
Report Post »WISEPENNY
Posted on September 17, 2010 at 12:33amI don’t blame people for being disgusted, and it’s obvious it had to be for attention. The first reaction toward her makes you want to punish her even more. But this girl is unbelievabley sick in the head and needs compassion and mercy and acceptance, right now, not more rejection and judgement and hatred. If you find yourself unable to muster that kind of compassion, please just move on and refrain from commenting. This is a perfect example of an instance where “Judge not, lest Ye be judged” definately applys. AUGHHHHH!!!!!!!!! (Screaming into pillow at the top of my lungs while my mind spins in horror of how messed up minds can become. AWSOME!)
Report Post »MorkfromOrk
Posted on September 17, 2010 at 12:23amWow..I just…what the…I don’t understand. My mouth is…why, why, why would someone do this? I was dumbfounded 2 weeks ago when I read the original story. The things we do to each other never ceases to amaze me. Now I see this girl did it to herself. New depths of human depravity. The ego!
Report Post »Nutthuggers
Posted on September 17, 2010 at 9:41amYou took the words out of my mouth…
Report Post »carol m
Posted on September 17, 2010 at 12:23amya think
Report Post »aircraftmag
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 11:01pmHow sad. I will pray for her.
Report Post »Nutthuggers
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 10:51pmWow! She makes the women in “Fatal Attraction” and “Single White Female” look like wimps! She took it to a whole new level of crazy. Throwing acid on your own face to get attention! It had to be acid because a doctor would know righ away whether it was really an acid wound or not. I wouldn’t want to get on her bad side…
Report Post »Nutthuggers
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 10:45pmWow, she takes “single white female” and “fatal attraction” creepiness to a whole new level! I wouldn’t want to have to break up with her.
Report Post »ann123
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 10:32pmI don’t know something fishy here . ether she really that sick. she lying through her teeth
Report Post »Ladypeppercar
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 10:00pmThere are people out there so desperate for attention they will do just about anything — when it is a situation like this, where there is an unintended victim (the target of the copycat), it is heartbreaking; when it is one’s own child (as in Munchausen’s syndrome), it is even more criminal. There are far more of these narcissists in society than we want to believe.
Report Post »Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 10:00pmThis poor woman needs our prayers and sympathy. Faith Hope Charity. I believe she should pay for her own medical bills, but this is a choice she will live with everytime she looks in the mirror. I hope whatever drove her to do this is healed and she can live a normal life. This was in Vancouver Wa. by the way. Please remember, even though she did this to herself, we must show pity and forgiveness.
By the way, this just in…there is some bad acid going around, stay away from the brown acid. Now, Jimmy Hendrix. (Woodstock reference)
Report Post »PeachyinGA
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 9:31pmIs this Vancouver, CANADA or Vancouver, WASHINGTON?
Report Post »ILoveGlenn
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 11:23pmIn washington state
Report Post »pinkcadlac
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 9:22pmWhat the…?
Report Post »GraceSullivan
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 9:09pmI wonder how much money has been donated to her, before the truth came out?
Report Post »redneck hickabilly
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 8:48pmno fixing her face-no plastic-surg= make her well and let her live with her own actions
Report Post »Rob
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 8:44pmShe is a nut… probably a liberal.
Report Post »sirpaulj7
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 10:01pmCan’t agree with you there … otherwise she would have said a Christian threw acid in her face. Sounds more like a nut from the right wing.
(not that there aren’t plenty of liberal nuts, mind you.)
Report Post »wodiej
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 8:27pmgood grief, she not only permanently injured herself but was an accomplice in an innocent woman having this actually done to her. People like this should be locked up.
Report Post »LadyIzShy
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 8:24pmBOTH women need our prayers. The one who did this to herself need conseling
Report Post »OhPatsy
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 8:11pmLies aside, what on earth is wrong with this woman? Why would she do something so horrific to herself? She must be a troubled soul, and I hope she gets the help she obviously needs. Lies are always found out in the end, and unfortunately, that lie led to the second woman being victimized. No good ever comes from lying, that’s for sure. It’s a sad situation all the way around.
Report Post »sweetbees
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 11:02pmThat is what I was thinking!! Who, in their right mind, would do this to themselves??!! I mean, geez, if ya want your 15 minutes of fame, there are surely less painful ways to do it!!!
Report Post »angelcat
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 11:06pmWe are encouraging people to get their 15 minutes of fame any way they can. If they can’t get their own reality show, I guess they try to be creative. The only other alternative is that the woman is seriously mentally ill. I hope her conscience(if she has one) bothers her about the possible copycat attack.
Report Post »Weetsie
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 8:10pmI wanna know what she did to her face to get it that way and was it an accident or on purpose?
Report Post »MCAinSTL
Posted on September 17, 2010 at 3:15pmMy guess is that she was trying at home acid treatment like what plastic suregons do. Kind of a facial that went bad. Probably got embarrassed so made up the lie.
Report Post »Joseph
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 8:06pmMore Left Coast Shenanigans!!!
Report Post »Desma
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 8:04pmThe person she said threw acid in her face she said was a black woman which we know now is a lie. She will pay for the rest of her life for telling that lie.
Report Post »NBKrupp
Posted on September 17, 2010 at 4:23pmSaying the attacker was a black woman is the worst part of the whole thing. Why on earth would someone do that? It’s like Susan Smith when she killed her children. Worse than sick.
Report Post »Ellie
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 7:58pmSee what a wicked web she wove when she choose to lie. Would there have been a “copy-cat” had there not been a story to copy?
Independent Tess
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 8:31pmThat’s the first thing I thought of, too, Ellie. Storro should think of that when she looks in the mirror.
Report Post »ADMIRAL747
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 9:18pmLet me guess who she voted for…
Report Post »AutoEuphoria
Posted on September 17, 2010 at 7:48amExactly. Very sad. Amazing how a person can fail to realize that their actions may impact the lives of other people.
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