Durham woman on assault, rape: 'They left me out like trash'

The 32-year-old victim told police she was sexually assaulted near a wooded area while walking her dog.

The victim told WRAL News that she was walking her dog when someone hit her with something wooden, which she knows because there was wood in her hair.

Police said the assault happened between 5 and 6 p.m.

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The victim said she doesn't know how long she was unconscious before her husband found her only partially clothed near a wooded area in the 5300 block of Penrith Drive.

A rape kit done after the incident confirmed the victim was raped.

"My pride is crushed," she said. "They left me out like trash. I want these guys punished."

The night before the assault, she says she was walking her dog and then two guys followed her home and asked to come inside because it was snowing. She told them no without incident.

She is not sure whether the two men are related to the attack.

Investigators have identified two persons of interest.

Both are described as men in their mid 20s to early 30s wearing red and gray coats.

Police said the men described were seen in the area the day before.

The victim said another reason she is so horrified by the assault is that her young daughter often walks the dog on that street.

She said if her daughter had been walking the dog that day, she may have been assaulted.

People who live in the victim’s South Durham neighborhood said they'll now be more alert and will watch out for each other.

"I think it's kind of bringing us together and bringing us out of our shells," neighbor Rickard Brod said. "We're actually communicating more with each other."

"You can't make sense of something like that. This is a quiet neighborhood and things like that just don't happen here."

Police are asking anyone with information about the incident to report it immediately.