Isabella Willingham has no recollection of what happened in late November when she lost consciousness in her Asbury University dorm room and woke up with bruises, cuts and deep gashes on her body.
More than three months later, Willingham, 21, has not returned to the campus in Wilmore, Kentucky, her father, Andy Willingham, said Thursday.
The elder Willingham has criticized the Jessamine County Sheriff’s Office for how it initially handled the investigation and said the university has not done enough to alert the campus about what he believes was an assault.
Representatives for Asbury University and the sheriff’s office said the investigation is ongoing, which limits their ability to speak in depth.
Willingham said what happened to his daughter was “purely physical torture.” She is still recovering physically, fears for her safety and is in therapy, he said.
“It has changed her direction. She doesn’t know if she’s going back to school, whether it would be Asbury or anywhere else,” Willingham said. “She’s trying to piece her world back together.”
He said his daughter’s memory has also been affected by the incident.
“She has no memory about anything about that day. She does not remember the previous day when I brought her back to campus. She has forgotten several things that have occurred during the semester itself,” he said.
Around 11 pm. Nov. 27, the resident director of Isabella Willingham’s dorm told her family she was being taken to the emergency room because she may have fallen off her loft-style bed, which was about 5 to 5 ½ feet off the ground, her father said. But he added that the possibility of that was remote because she was protected by a rail about 8 inches above her mattress.
After Andy Willingham arrived at University of Kentucky Hospital in Lexington, a chaplain told him that his daughter was on a ventilator and had gruesome injuries.
Minutes later, the chaplain returned with two sheriff’s deputies who were called to the…
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