Alicia Kozakiewicz now 27, has spoken out about the abuse she suffered at the hands of rapist Scott Tyree when she was 13-years-old.
She was groomed online, by a man who she believed was a teen age boy. Alicia agreed to meet him. She went to meet Evil Tyree on New Year’s Day 2002, when he abducted her and kept her in his home in Virginia five hours away from her hometown Pittsburgh.
He locked her up in a cage naked and put a dog collar around her neck. She was chained to the floor in his bedroom, where he raped and beat her for four days.
He broadcast the beatings on an online forum when a user, identified Alicia was the girl in the missing posters and called the police.
The FBI traced Tyree’s house by using the IP address and found Alicia hiding naked under the bed, terrified as she thought she was going to be killed.
Alicia was taken to the hospital by the police. She said.” I was saved. The relief, after being imprisoned for four days, was unbelievable”. She said.
“At the hospital and police station I was so traumatised I could hardly speak, but I do remember seeing a dolls’ house after a forensic examination.”
She was taken to a wonderful foster family. She said.”Despite the cuts and bruises, physically I was intact. Psychologically I was broken nightmares and flashbacks came daily”.
“My experience left a hole, but I decided to fill it by raising awareness. I started to tell my story in schools. At first it was hard, but seeing the kids’ response was worth it”.
Now Alicia is an international advocate for preventative safety education and effective legislation. As a survivor of Internet luring, abduction and child sexual exploitation, Alicia has devoted her life to raising awareness of missing persons cases and protecting children against predatory crime.
She said. “Now I’ve fallen in love and my partner is so supportive of my mission. I’ll never forgive the monster who did this, so instead I focus on getting Alicia’s Law (which helps fund internet-crime-against-children task forces, like the one that rescued me) passed in every US state. I was given a second chance at life, so now I choose to use that to save others.”