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Woman shares graphic pictures of herself after an alleged botched sexual assault
A sexual assault victim Vanessa Ursini reveals how she was able to thwart a purported attacker's assault at a park in Littleton, Colorado. (Image source: KCNC-TV video screenshot)

Woman shares graphic pictures of herself after an alleged botched sexual assault

Vanessa Ursini, a 29-year-old Colorado woman, survived an alleged sexual assault attempt Wednesday morning in Littleton, Colorado.

What are the details?

Ursini shared a lengthy post on Facebook detailing her horrific experience.

"I was walking my dog Berreta alone on our regular loop on the Platte River Trail, a short walk from my home," Ursini wrote. "A man passed by me that I had recognized briefly from the day prior when I was walking with Billie. He didn’t make eye contact with me and I got a very strange vibe."

Ursini said that she encountered the man a couple more times in the following brief period of time, and each time she saw him, his presence became more and more suspect to her.

"I saw he had a rope in his hands and at that point he was too close to try and put any distance between us," Ursini admitted.

She said he allegedly came up behind her and strangled her with the rope, dragging her into the woods, and forcibly undressed her.

"He continued to choke me using his hands, the rope, and with a bandana of some sort," Ursini wrote. "I fought like hell and screamed my brains out, even my sweet dog tried to fight him and bite him as much as she could."

Ursini reported that the man had threatened to kill her in what she believed was an attempt to stop her from screaming.

"I thought that this could be the end but I was not about to give up fighting for my life," she added. "He hog-tied me from my neck to my wrists, then to my ankles and told me he was going to let me go but he needed to find his glasses first."

How did she escape the attacker?

While her attacker was allegedly distracted and searching for his missing glasses, Ursini said she was able to untie the knot around her ankles and free herself.

Ursini wrote that she took off without her dog and without most of her clothing and flagged down the first people she spotted on the nearby bike path.

"A man on a bike chased him down and was able to restrain him until police arrived," Ursini noted, and said that her attacker — who is purportedly a registered sex offender with multiple warrants out for his arrest — was taken into custody.

Ursini revealed that she was also able to retrieve her dog.

"This was the worst day of my life but I knew I had to fight, it simply wasn’t my time to die," she wrote.

She added that she decided to be open about her alleged experience in order to remind people to always be aware of their surroundings.

She concluded, "I am lucky to be alive, so please have a plan in place to protect yourself from whatever may be out there. Be safe out there, lots of love from me!"

What did the woman say?

Ursini told KCNC-TV that her fighting back caused the suspected attacker, later identified as 48-year-old Johnny Dewayne Harris, to lose his glasses and that's when she saw her window to move.

"I'm not a victim, I survived, I won't let him win," she added.

According to KCNC, Ursini will not have medical insurance until next month, so her friends set up a crowdfunding page to raise money for her medical expenses and lost wages.

At the time of this writing, Ursini's GoFundMe page has received more than $18,000 of the page's $20,000 goal.

What else?

KUSA-TV reported that Harris is a known sex offender and faces charges for sexual assault and kidnapping.

According to KUSA, an affidavit stated that Harris told police he sexually assaulted Ursini, but she fought him off, and did knock off his glasses. Harris also reportedly told police that he attempted to flee after Ursini freed herself but was caught.

Harris was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1999 for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in Texas, KUSA said.

He was also arrested in 2016 for exposing himself to a minor as well as adults in Denver.

Additionally, another woman accused Harris of kidnapping and sexually assaulting her in March — and he reportedly attempted to attack another woman the next day.

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