A 15 year old Omaha girl is sharing her story of survival after she was beaten and cut by an intruder in her home. Annalena Halic tells 6 News the attack happened while she was getting ready for school last Friday morning near 60th and L.
She says she was getting dressed for school when she heard something in the kitchen. She tells 6 News she looked, didn't see anything and went back to her room to finish getting ready.
She heard more strange noises from her sister's room, who wasn't home, and went in and saw a window open.
"I'm walking into the room and all of a sudden he just jumps out of the closet and knocks my phone out of my hand and he throws it against the wall," Halac recalls.
She said they fell to the ground where her attacker started using their hands and a rubber mallet to hit her repeatedly. The attack only became more violent.
"He was covering my mouth and I was trying to scream but I couldn't and he was choking me and trying to unbutton my school skirt," Annalena told 6 News.
It was at that point the attacker pulled out a knife they had taken from the kitchen and began cutting her and threatening her.
"All I could hear was 'If you don't stop moving I'm going to make you stop and it's not going to be good for you'."
She says she fought back and the struggle lasted about ten minutes. She said she eventually hit her attacker over the head with a vase that she had put in her sister's room a couple of days earlier. She was able to get away and alert her father, who was in the basement.
Her father said that by the time he got upstairs the assailant has escaped from a second-story window. Now they’re working with police to solve the crime.
Annalena said she's telling her story to empower women and hopefully get this man caught. "Just keep fighting. It may be really hard in the moment but I promise you it will make a difference in the future."