Woman says she was attacked, left unconscious in Palmer Park
A woman says she’ll never go hiking alone again after being beaten and left unconscious Tuesday morning at Palmer Park in Colorado Springs, and her Facebook post detailing the harrowing event has been shared by thousands as a warning to remain vigilant.
Syrie Estes, 19, is about to be a junior at the University of Colorado – Colorado Springs, but her summer started with an attack that she says has left her “shaken” and still in shock.
Estes posted two pictures of her in a hospital bed with a post about the attack, and we spoke with her Wednesday to hear her story.
She told us she was hiking and stopped near Parking Area 15 in the park to send her friend a text message and take in the views. That was the last thing she remembered before waking up on the ground, bleeding and sore. When she woke up, she looked at the time and saw she had been blacked out for about 20 minutes and she was about 15 feet away from her things.
No one was around when Estes woke up, and she says she’s “extremely lucky and very thankful” that she’s OK.
Estes told KRDO her first phone call wasn’t to 911 — it was, understandably, to her mother. Estes’ mother met with her and took her to the hospital. She says she was lucky to escape with “a bruised hip bone, concussion, and scrapes and bruises that have [her] very sore.”
Estes told us she believes she was about to be sexually assaulted while she was unconscious, but something scared off her attacker.
“The scariest part is that there are 20 minutes of my life I can’t account for, that I have no idea what happened,” Estes said. “It’s terrifying.”
She said hospital staff told her she had normal vitals and she didn’t have any signs of heat exhaustion or heart issues that would have caused her to pass out.
The Facebook post picked up traction; within less than a day, it had been shared more than 2,000 times and had hundreds of reactions and comments. Many people left comments saying they had similar experiences at Palmer Park.
Twenty-four hours after the incident, however, Estes still hadn’t filed a report about the incident. We asked why she didn’t call 911 immediately from the park, and she said she was “confused and in shock.” CSPD reached out to Estes on Twitter, asking her to provide more information.
She told us she tried to make a report with CSPD Tuesday morning, but a Colorado Springs officer couldn’t go to her house because she lives in Fountain. She was invited to make a report in person at a substation, and Estes told us she filed the report at about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.
“I’m not sure what else I can do at this point except warn other people,” Estes said. “Even if it only helps one person, at least they’re safe.”
CSPD says it’s investigating the incident and called on other potential victims to report any assaults that occurred at the park.
