Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

Woman in acid attack in Oregon vows to push on with her life

The Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. - Bethany Storro had just bought a pair of sunglasses and was celebrating a new job when a woman walked up to her with a cup and said: "Hey pretty girl, do you want to drink this?"

The woman then splashed acid in the cup on Storro, who stumbled in pain and fell to the ground screaming. She felt agonizing pain as the skin on her face bubbled and sizzled and portions of her blouse disintegrated.

"It was the most painful thing ever," Storro, 28, said Thursday.

Police are seeking a black woman with a ponytail in the Monday attack as Storro, with her head wrapped in white bandages, told a news conference Thursday how only days before, she had been celebrating a new job and a recent move to Vancouver, Wash., from Idaho.

But she insisted that she would not let the attack in Vancouver wreck her life, and laughingly marveled how her eyesight was spared just minutes after she bought those sunglasses.

Storro said she had spinal meningitis twice as a child, which robbed her of most of her hearing.

Her mother said Storro was getting something out of her car before heading into a Starbucks when the woman approached her with the cup. Storro said the woman was wearing a green top and khaki pants.

"I have never, ever seen this girl in my entire life," Storro said.

After the attack, the woman ran off.