Massage clinic rape victim says she recognizes attacker’s eyes

She won’t forget his eyes.

That’s what one of the victims named in the charging documents against Seattle attorney Danford Grant says.

The victim, who wishes to remain nameless, says she contacted police after she was raped. After Grant was arrested on Monday, they brought a photo to her. She says she knew it was her attacker immediately – because of the eyes.

For her, business was important. She cared about professionalism and maintaining her license, getting it renewed every year, and continuing her education to improve her work.

She was aware that sexual harassment did happen in the massage industry too. She heard from a friend of another woman who had been raped, but she didn’t know her personally.

Then one summer night her attacker walked in. She kept the later hours during the summer, but tried to close up the business by the time the sun went down.

At first it was normal, but when he started talking again – she remembered.

This man had been in before, maybe as many as four times. Each time he would call and use a different voice, a different name and leave a different phone number to make his appointments. Sometimes he would dress a little differently when he came in.

On each of the previous occasions, the man started out polite and acted normal. By the end, he would try and ask her out on dates and make her feel uncomfortable. On the other occasions she was able to usher him out without incident. She would make note, not to let that name and phone number make an appointment again.

It wouldn’t matter.

Several months passed before he visited her massage clinic the final time.

On that occasion, as her attacker started talking she knew again – it was the same guy. He proposed marriage. He told her he had a wife and kids who had died in a car accident and he wanted to start his life all over again, with her.

She refused his advances and went for the door, but he stopped her. She reached for her phone but he got in her way. Then the knife.

She did everything she could to try and stop her attacker. She said she was married. She even said she had HIV. The attacker replied that he had it too. She asked why he would hurt her, if he said that he loved her, but the knife was already at her neck.

She reported her rape to the police. She says she wasn’t worried about the HIV she lied about because the attacker used a condom anyway. But for a time after the attack, she couldn’t sleep. She would just worry.

With time, she put it out of her head. Still, she confessed that now, since he’s been caught, she can’t sleep again.

She plans to go to court when asked – she estimates she’ll be asked to attend a hearing within the next week. Still it’s the eyes that haunt her.

Eyes that she believes belong to the man in the photo that police showed her: Danford Grant’s.

“Those eyes. They stand out to me, because we were fighting for a while in the massage room. And I’ll never ever forget those eyes. It’s a nightmare for me.”

Her life has been changed. A job she once sought continuing education for reminds her of painful memories.

“I’ve gotten to the point, I’m just so tired. I want to give up everything.”

Now, she’ll have to keep living through it over and over again, retelling her story, for police, for lawyers, for a judge.

A report by Kim Shepard, with Alyssa Kleven