Alleged Rape Victim Lives 8 Days in Car Trunk

A woman lived on peanuts and rainwater for eight days in the trunk of a car after being raped and slashed, police said Friday.

“Honestly, it’s a tribute to a person’s will to survive,” Sgt. Larry Zumbrock said.

The 37-year-old woman finally freed herself in this Chicago suburb on Thursday by prying open the lock with a part from the spare tire bracket, Zumbrock said.

The woman was listed in fair condition Friday at Holy Family Hospital, spokeswoman Linda Melton said. She was dehydrated and had deep cuts on her face, hands and legs, which were infected, Melton added.

Don Juan Blackmon, 32, a deliveryman whom the woman had dated, was charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery, aggravated kidnaping and aggravated sexual assault, police said. He was being held on $500,000 bond.

The woman allegedly was raped on April 17, then slashed with a knife and stuffed in the trunk, police said.

She said she survived by eating two peanuts a day from a package in her pocket and by drinking dew and rainwater that seeped through cracks in the trunk, Zumbrock said.

Blackmon continued to drive his car--even for his car pool--with the woman in the trunk, Zumbrock said. “He had three other people driving to work with him,” the officer said.

The woman kept quiet when the car was moving, thinking that her alleged assailant assumed she was dead and out of fear that she might be slashed again, Zumbrock said.

She made noise when she thought Blackmon was not around, but no one heard, police said.