Acid Attack Victim Could Hear Her Skin 'Sizzling'

(Sept. 3) -- A Vancouver, Wash., woman attacked with acid on her way to a Starbucks coffee shop says she could feel her face sizzling as her skin began to burn.

"It was the most painful thing," 28-year-old Bethany Storro told reporters. "My heart stopped. I almost passed out. Once it hit me, I could actually hear it bubbling and sizzling on my skin."

Storro was getting something out of her car outside a Starbucks on Aug. 30 when she saw a woman, around her own age, standing before her and heard the chilling words that would change her life: "Hey, pretty little girl, want to take a drink of this?"

Then, inexplicably, the woman threw a cup of acid-like liquid in Storro's face, sending her screaming out in pain in the middle of the busy street. Passers-by rushed to her aid and called 911.

Storro had just moved to Vancouver, just north of Portland, Ore., to be with her parents after living in Idaho. She said she had never seen her attacker before that day. Police say the bizarre and horrific acid assault -- far more common in other areas of the world -- appears to be random. There are so far no suspects, and the motive remains unclear.

The acid was so strong that parts of Storro's shirt simply disintegrated, The Oregonian reported. Doctors said Storro suffered second-degree burns all over her face -- except, fortunately, on her eyes, which were protected by a pair of sunglasses she bought less than an hour before the attack. Doctors said the glasses may have saved her eyesight.

"I had this feeling that I need to go buy sunglasses," she said, according to KPTV in Oregon. "It's hard finding sunglasses that are cute. I finally found a pair that I liked, so I went and bought them. That was 20 minutes before the acid was thrown in my face."

But the excruciating pain didn't stop Storro -- who is hard of hearing because of two bouts of spinal meningitis she suffered as a child -- from joking around Thursday night in front of family members and reporters.

"Oh, my gosh, to be hard of hearing and blind? That would drive them nuts," she said of her parents. "They have to be in the same room for me to hear them. I'm just so glad it's a miracle."

Her father, Joe Neuwelt, was less jovial. "You can imagine how I feel," he said. "This is my little girl." Her mother, Nancy Neuwelt, called the attack "an act of evil," according to The Associated Press.

Storro described the attacker as a black woman in her late 20s or early 30s, with her hair pulled back into a ponytail, according to The Oregonian. She said she could feel the woman's rage.

"I have never, ever seen this girl in my entire life," Storro told reporters Thursday. "When I first saw her, she had this weirdness about her -- like jealousy, rage."

Storro underwent surgery Wednesday to remove some of the charred skin, a procedure doctors said was successful, CBS reported. She is expected to make a full recovery, but it will be a long process. Storro said she will eventually forgive her attacker.

"In time I'm going to forgive her because if I don't then it's hard to move on with my life," she said.