A student who was found with mysterious injuries in her dorm room, having stopped breathing for "23 minutes" has finally spoken out about the ordeal.
Isabella Willingham, 21, who is a student at Asbury University in Kentucky, was hospitalized after she was found with several injuries and unable to breathe on her own in her dorm room.
She was found with deep lacerations and bruising on her body after the mysterious incident on November 27, the cause of which remain unknown.
Now, months after the shocking incident, Isabella has spoken out for the first time.
After the incident went public, Jessamine County Sheriff Kevin Grimes said: "It’s 100% baffling what happened to this young lady.
"In some way, shape, form, or fashion, she’s a victim just like anybody else. … We 100% believe something happened; we just don’t know what."
The 21-year-old confirmed that neither she nor the police has been able to determine what exactly happened to her in her room that night, but believes she survived in order to raise awareness of the lack of protection for students at her university.
She told NBC News: "I believe God spared me because my mission is to now bring light to the safety issues on campus. The students definitely need way more protection than they’re getting.
"I want what happened to me to draw attention to the fact that Asbury needs more cameras on all of their exits and entryways."
Isabella was found by her roommate who raised the alarm, allowing her to receive medical treatment, though her injuries were severe enough that her memory was left fragmented, meaning she was unable to remember most of her past semester at university.
She thanked the first responders who helped to save her life, adding: "I survived my attack, and I’m so thankful for the first responders who didn’t give up on me. I’m alive because of that."
Asbury University declined to comment on the alleged lack of cameras at entry and exits, but said in a statement: "Asbury’s priority remains the safety and wellbeing of its students, faculty, and staff."
Isabella, who no longer attends the university, believes that she never left her dorm room on the day of the incident, and her family has said that a rape kit determined that she wasn't sexually assaulted, and toxicology tests "found nothing of concern".
She added that she doesn't know of a reason anyone would have wanted to attack her, or pinpoint any negative experiences that may have led to the incident.
The student says she mostly kept to herself while at the private Christian university - which has strict rules about when men can enter the Glide-Crawford dorms, which is also supposed to be documented - but believes she may have been attacked by "a group of girls".
She added: "It was probably a group of girls. I barely talked to anyone. I knew, like, three people on campus. Like, I never left my room. I just feel like it was girls, because I only knew girls."
The Jessamine County Sheriff’s Office had initially said that Isabella may have had a medical episode rather than being beaten, but the statement was later retracted as the person who made it did not have the "authority" to speak on the case.
Sheriff Grimes added that investigators have spent hundreds of hours on the case after being called to the dorm room for reports of a potential overdose, and initially did not see the injures to the lower part of Isabella's body as she was covered up when they arrived.
He added: "The one thing that we have going against us was that we did not get notified to the injuries to her legs until probably five or six hours later. … I can say we were behind the eight ball when it comes to the injury side of it."
Investigators have reviewed video from the dorm and spoken to other residents but said that they have yet to get any substantial leads or critical witnesses.
Sheriff Grimes added that no evidence of a crime was found in the dorm room itself, explaining: "It was a dorm room. No blood. No damage. No craziness in the room.
"If there’s nothing in the room that showed there was an assault ... that makes you think maybe this happened somewhere else. We just don’t know."
.jpg_Se3J64?tr=h-184)
