SEATTLE – Sabrina Rasmussen has filed a lawsuit to change the way sex offenders are classified and monitored in Washington state.
The man who attacked her later kidnapped and murdered another young girl in Tacoma.
It's hard to tell, but beneath her sunny demeanor, Sabrina Rasmussen is still haunted by a dark chapter in her life.
"Every other girl he has gotten he killed except for me," she said.
Rasmussen is now 22 years old. She vividly remembers the spring day 11 years ago when a man grabbed her off a Parkland street on her way to middle school and threw her into his van.
"I screamed until I got into the truck and nobody heard me," she said. "He said, 'If you do what I say I won't kill you, but if you scream I will kill you.'"
In a wooded area outside Fort Lewis, Rasmussen was duct-taped, violently raped and left bleeding.
Year later, she is still traumatized.
"I always have to look in the backseat of the car when I get in," she continued. "I always have to watch behind me when I am walking, especially by myself. I just can't be alone."
For seven years, her case went unsolved. But in 2007, Terapon Adhahn was arrested for the abduction, rape and killing of a Tacoma girl, Zina Linnik.
Adhahn's DNA matched the Rasmussen case.
"I thought he would come after me and kill me. I thought he would come after me again," she said.
Adhahn had a long, troubled history. In 1990, he was convicted of raping his 16-year-old sister, classified as a sex offender and put under Department of Corrections supervision.
"There were so many red flags going off with Adhahn," said attorney Tyler Firkins.
Firkins says the state's supervision was lax and no one kept track of Adhahn for 12 years after he failed to register as a sex offender.
"Ultimately it resulted in the death of at least one child and the rape of three or four that we can identify," he said.
Adhahn is now locked up for life, and Rasmussen never wants an unsupervised sex offender to hurt anyone again.
"It is not OK for people to be hurt like that, lose a family member over it because the State of Washington cannot do their job," she said.
Spokespeople for the City of Tacoma and Child Protective Services say they cannot comment on pending litigation.
A similar lawsuit was filed on behalf of Zina Linnik's family earlier this year.
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