BEAVERTON, Ore. — Lauren Carrier lives in an apartment just north of the Beaverton Transit Center. Her story begins innocuously enough — with a knock on her front door early this month.
"A stranger came to my door the night before the attack, asking for somebody named Jasmine," Carrier recalled.
Carrier told the man that he was mistaken, there was no such person at her apartment. While that ended the brief encounter, she would see the man again.
"The following night, he knocked on my door again, and I cracked the door a little bit ... " Carrier said. "... he said 'oh yeah?' and kicked the door open and started punching me, and then started stabbing me."
Carrier was stabbed at least 10 times, suffering a broken rib and two punctured lungs.
Despite the ferocity of her attacker's onslaught, Carrier managed to fight back — grabbing a baseball bat and beating the man enough to disengage. She escaped out the front door, but collapsed just outside.
"Luckily I have amazing neighbors that came to save my life," Carrier told KGW. "If it weren't for those neighbors and if it weren't for me fighting, I wouldn't be here talking to you right now."
Her alleged attacker, named in court documents as 27-year-old Bryan Andrew Aguilera of Woodburn, now faces charges including first-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault and first-degree burglary.
Carrier's neighbors chased Aguilera down after the attack, she said, and held him until police arrived.
"I was thinking, 'somebody needs to call my mom and let my mom know,' that was the first thing going through my head," said Carrier.
While Carrier is still understandably struggling, with the nerves in her right arm completely severed, she said that she wants to show her 9-year-old that she's a survivor.
"Showing my daughter everyday that anything that happens to you, you can get through it," Carrier said. "It just takes a lot of willpower and being strong."
Carrier's friends started a GoFundMe campaign to help support her during her recovery from the attack, which has left her unable to work. As of Thursday night, the campaign had raised nearly $11,500 of a $20,000 goal.