Two months after an attack that changed her life, a 15 year old Greenville girl is sharing her story. Newschannel 7 is not identifying the girl, for her own protection. She remembers the day back in February when she was walking home from Wade Hampton High School, and a man stopped and offered her a ride. "When he turned off on another road, I knew something was wrong," she says. "I was like where are you taking me? What are you doing?"
Greenville County deputies say the man behind the wheel was 43 year old Todd Michael Taylor. The teen had met Taylor once before at a local restaurant. She says she trusted him. But that day, she claims he held her down and tried to assault her. Amazingly, she broke free." She says, "I didn't know if I was going to stay alive or if I was going to die, or if I was ever going to get away, but I did." She ran home, where her mother found her in tears. "There she stood, bruised and scratched, and in tears, and it was really hard to come home and see her like that."
For weeks, the family waited, thinking the case would never be solved. The teen switched schools, after many people questioned whether she made up the story. Then, an arrest came. "I just fell on my knees and started to cry."
Now that Taylor is behind bars, she feels she can finally move on. "Anybody else, younger girls, don't have to worry about this guy, because now he's going to jail." She and her mother also have advice for others. "Really be aware of who you let your kids hang out with, accept rides from, who you think is trustworthy," the girl's mother says. "By all costs, fight your way out of it," says the girl.
Todd Michael Taylor is being held at the Greenville County Detention Center on $160,000 bond.
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