FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WNCN) - Using your darkest moments to light the way for other victims of sexual assault. That's what the future holds for Kobi Haschen. She is one of six women sexually assaulted over a decade ago in a string of assaults known as the Ramsey Street Rapes.
Haschen gave CBS 17 insight into the worst day of her life. Now she explains how her pain fuels her passion to help other assault victims.
"It's been, the first few years were probably the hardest. And as time went on, it's not that it got easier, but I kind of learned how to cope with it more". Haschen said.
The coping has become easier after police made an arrest in the case. Darold Wayne Bowden is awaiting trial for sexually assaulting Kobi Haschen and five other women over a decade ago in Fayetteville.
"I never saw his face. When he broke in, I actually had a pillow on my face and he kept my face covered the whole time so I never saw his face," she recalled.
Haschen was one of three women in the apartment the night of the assault. She was told by the man who grabbed her to be quiet or the other two girls would get it. That's when she says she made a choice and lived through a nightmare.
"I never had to fear that he was going to kill me. I just didn't want him to get back into the apartment to the get other two girls." Haschen told CBS 17.
The mentality of putting others first has been ingrained in Haschen since childhood. She is working on becoming an advocate; helping others deal with the pain, shame and guilt many sexual assault victims experience.
Haschen knows the path to closure is long and she wants to help victims and families navigate it — those like the family of 13-year-old Hania Aguilar. She was raped and killed by a man in Lumberton, and the man accused should never have been on the streets.
"All the emotions again, because you know I know what my family went through, and just knowing that this little girl's family is hurting. And, like you said, he shouldn't even of been on the streets, and that's the anger and the sadness." Haschen said.
DNA evidence links Hania's accused killer Michael McLellan to a 2016 rape but the former Robeson County district attorney said the sheriff's office never followed up.
"God forbid. I couldn't imagine. So, like I said, it's time for something to change, and it needs to happen," Haschen said.
