JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A woman who police said was raped and assaulted earlier this month by a 26-year-old man is speaking out so other possible victims might come forward.
Bell Carol says she was attacked March 14.
Police said Michael Lourcey (pictured, below) was her attacker. He's being held in the Duval County jail without bail. Lourcey waived his first appearance in court Wednesday morning.
Investigators said they have connected him to another assault of a jogger in January. Detectives said they made that connection using DNA from the rape case.
Meanwhile, Carol is still homeless and living on the street. She lives in a homeless camp right near Emerson Street and Philips Highway. That's bad, but she said it doesn't compare to what happened to her about two weeks ago.
"You know, I don't have nothing out here. I have nothing. I lost everything," Carol said. "I am alive. And I am going to make something positive out of this."
Carol said the way to do that is to talk about what happened to her. She said she and her husband, who both live on the street, met Lourcey when he walked up and was hanging out with them in the morning.
Carol said he left with her husband but came back when she was sleeping later in the day and hit her over the head with a piece of wood.
"The first hit, immediate shock," she said. "The second hit, I felt nothing but warmth, and the blood just started pouring. He hit me a third time and I am seeing all types of things, and I'm fighting to stay awake. I got on my hands and knees and I begged him not to kill me."
It was then when he raped her, according to police, just out of sight of the road near an abandon building in the middle of the day. Carol said because she was being choked, she could not yell for help.
"I could see the cars going by and they could not see me," she said.
She said it seemed to last forever, but it was a short time. And then she said Lourcey acted as if nothing happened.
"I was bleeding everywhere. It was all over him," Carol said. "He said, 'I know, get dressed.' He said, 'Look, I'm going to Walmart. You got McDonald's. Have a nice day.'"
As Carol dazedly wandered to the road, people called for help. Police questioned her and she passed out and was taken to a hospital.
Police said they picked up Lourcey along Philips Highway, and he's been in jail ever since. They used DNA evidence from this attack to link him to an assault on a jogger in a Southside neighborhood nearly two months before.
But Carol believes there might be even more victims, and that's why she is speaking out.
"I want any woman to know if she has been assaulted, if this man touched her or attacked her, if there are other women, come forward," Carol said.
Lourcey's arraignment is set for April 17.