Wichita Woman Searches For Peace After Being Sexually Assaulted, Turns A Horrifying Incident Into A Positive

A local woman from Wichita, Kansas, is trying to recover after being sexually assaulted in her front yard last week. Debi Atkins-Mower reports that her attacker wasn’t able to rape her, but he took something much more precious — her happiness. Somehow, in the midst of the horrifying attack, Debi was able to find her happy place again by helping other women regain their power and self-esteem.

At first glance, Debi doesn’t appear to be fighting off any painful memories of being sexually attacked. Atkins-Mower is the type of person that is happy and always tries to make sure those around her are doing well. No one would know that she is fighting off the memory of being attacked just a few days ago.

KWCH 12 reported that Debi decided to take her life back and took action against the man who attacked her. She made the painful decision to move on and decided to take a self-defense and women’s empowerment class.

“I walked across the front of my vehicle, dropped my trash off, walked back across the front of my vehicle and this man was right here. He ripped my blouse and I started struggling at that point.He continued to lick on my neck. I cannot for the life of me think of what reason this happened, what possibly could come out of this?”

A week ago, a strange man grabbed Debi and shoved her against her car. He began to sexually assault her by ripping her blouse off and licking her neck. The nightmare came to an abrupt end when a car pulled into her driveway and her attacker vanished.

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— IslandBudokan Karate (@islandbudokan) April 28, 2016

Cindy Coughenour, the owner of Fearless and Female, offered to help Debi get her power back. A self-defense instructor, Cindy offered to lead a class for Debi and a group of friends. She wanted to provide them with the tools they may need to protect themselves. Cindy felt moved by Debi’s story and felt she had a powerful message to share and wanted to help her.

“She did so many things right that night. First, she fought back and then she stayed calm and then she thought on her feet to say something to throw this guy off his game.”

Originally, Debi didn’t want to file a police report because she wanted to pretend like the incident never happened. The day after her attack, she changed her mind and decided to file a report. Debi encourages all women to speak up when they are attacked and not to be scared to contact the police.

“He physically did not rape me because I was able to make him go away but I lost my happy and I need to get that back. So in order for me to get that back, I need to empower women to stand up and to be strong and not be afraid.”

Fearless and Female helps women develop self-defense skills so they can protect themselves against an attack. Cindy Coughenour provides a hands-on and informational program that helps women regain control of their life and give them the skills to stop any future assault.

Woman teaches other women self-defense through Fearless and Female http://t.co/ZQUCImXEvK

— fearless and female (@stabbykitty) July 3, 2015

The story has a happy ending, because with Cindy’s help, Debi was able to find her happy place. Debi knows that if someone tries to assault her again, she has the skills needed to stop the attack and will report the incident to the police right away.

[Image via Debi Atkins-Mower Facebook Page]