NBC Chicago
September 7, 2015
The victim of a brutal attack in a Chicago suburb last weekend left the hospital Friday and said in an emotional statement about the arrest of her alleged attacker that she “won.”
“I defeated him,” said Melissa Schuster. “He tried to take everything away from me but I won in the end. I did not give up.”
Her nose fractured, her face covered in stitches and bruises, Schuster said she looked in the mirror for first time Thursday.
“It kind of broke my heart, I was almost in tears but then I realized it’s just the beginning,” she said.
Though NBC Chicago does not normally name victims of sexual assault, Schuster said she wanted her story heard because she “wanted to make a difference in someone else’s life.”
The 26-year-old was unloading groceries in the driveway of the home in the 700 block of 73rd Court at about 1 p.m. Saturday when a dark blue older model Nissan Altima pulled up, and that is when police say 31-year-old Londale Madison got out and approached her.
“All he asked me was, ‘Can I have money?” she said. “And I politely said, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t have any money to give you.'”
She went inside and locked the door, but Madison later knocked and asked again. When she refused, he knocked the door down and attacked her, according to police.
After punching her repeatedly, Schuster says the man forced her to remove her clothes, and get into the shower – where he raped her.