Issue date: 9/18/08 Section: Student Life

After the assault, senior Brady was a camp counselor at YMCA camp in Iowa. Shecame back to school with a new outlook on life-lock your doors and be aware.

Seniors Jessica Schill (left) and Brady (right) have been roommates for the last two years. Schill helped Brady deal with the aftermath of her assault.

Waking up in the middle of the night and having the strangest feeling that you are not alone is a common fear for some people. A fear doesn't always become reality, but it did for UW-Eau Claire senior Anna Brady.

In the early morning hours of March 2, 2008, then-junior Brady was asleep on the couch in her friend's house. She awoke when she thought she felt pressure on her leg.

"I woke up, flipped over and saw a guy sitting on the floor next to the couch where I was sleeping," Brady said. "He pulled up his pants and ran out of the room."

She woke up her friend who was sleeping on the other couch in the living room. Her friend told her to go back to sleep; that it was probably just one of their guy friends. Brady was petrified, and knew this man was no friend. She didn't get a good look at him, but she suddenly heard footsteps coming from the kitchen. That's when the stranger ran back into the living room, bent down in front of Brady, picked up his dropped wallet and ran for the back door.

"That's when I knew this was serious and this guy was not a friend and I immediately called the police," Brady said.

The Eau Claire Police Department responded to Brady's call and they were at the house within minutes.

"Because I was so shocked, I was suddenly and completely aware of all my surroundings, so when he came back into the room to get his wallet, I studied him. I was able to catch every little detail about this guy," she said.

Brady told police about the man's navy blue jacket, his baggy jeans with change in the pocket and his dead giveaway: his big fur hunting hat. Brady also estimated the man was 5'9 and weighed about 180 pounds.

Police found the man walking down Lake Street within 20 minutes of talking to Brady.

"I was so happy and relieved when he was caught. After he was arrested, a lot of other girls stepped forward and said the same thing happened to them," she said.

The man in question was 19-year-old Eau Claire student, Joash Victor Tindi, who was arrested for fourth-degree sexual assault and later was expelled from school. Tindi was responsible for three other reports of entering homes in the same neighborhood, according to a police report.

After Brady spoke with police, she realized the sweatpants she was sleeping in felt strange. She looked down and saw an eight inch cut in her sweatpants that went from the knee to almost the waistband. She then noticed a four inch cut in the shorts she wore underneath the sweatpants.

"He found scissors in the kitchen and cut my sweatpants, for easier access I think. But the creepy part is he was wandering the house and we had no idea," Brady said.

Tindi, a native of Kenya, was released on bail and staying in a hotel with his parents when he escaped from their sight and fled the county.

"I was in class and one of my friends ran in and told me he escaped. I was so angry, but most of all I was terrified because I was the one who turned him in. I was afraid he would come after me," Brady said.

Brady was given a special cell phone by the police. If one button is pushed, it immediately calls the police and they can figure out where the caller is located.

"That did make me feel safer, but not safe enough," she said.

Brady had trouble sleeping for many days after the occurrence.

"It took me a good five days to finally sleep through the night and I made my roommates sleep with me in my room," Brady said.

One of Brady's roommates, senior Jessica Schill, was especially shook up about the situation her friend was in.

"Anna is one of those awesome girls that always says 'whatever guys can do, I can do too.' She definitely is the strongest person I know, so seeing her this way was really weird to me," Schill said.

After the attack, the rules of the house changed.

"We definitely didn't lock the doors all the time, but now I make sure they are locked when we leave and when we sleep. I lock my bedroom door when I sleep now for sure," Brady said.

Brady's outlook on life changed as well.

"I'm a bigger girl, so I always felt like the protector among my friends. I never felt anything like this would ever happen to me. I would read about these kinds of horror stories in magazines and totally disregard it because stuff like that just doesn't happen," Brady said. "Well, life proved me wrong and it was huge wakeup call that these things do happen and I am living proof."

As the school year wound down, Brady left Eau Claire for the summer and worked at a YMCA camp in Iowa. But, even hours away from Eau Claire, the memories of that March morning never left her.

"The hardest part of camp was that there were no locks on the cabin and it was so hard for me to sleep knowing anyone could walk in," she said.

But Brady had to deal with the no lock situation as it was a safety precaution for the campers going back and forth all day and night.

After the incident, the usually positive Brady saw a lot of negative.

"Everyone always talks about how Eau Claire is safe and it really made me doubt it for awhile. But, it is safe here. This was just a random occurrence," she said. "I was really lucky that nothing worse happened to me."

Brady does have words of wisdom for others dealing with sexual assault.

"Tell someone!" she said. "If I hadn't called the cops, who knows where else he could have gone that morning and who else he could have touched," she added.

Unfortunately, this is not Brady's first incident with sexual assault. As a freshman, she was assaulted by someone she considered to be a friend. After she told an authority figure, other girls stepped forward and said the same thing happened to them with the same male.

Brady sometimes still wakes up in the middle of the night thinking someone is in her room, but she knows it's something she has to work on in the future.

"I think about him less and less and I do feel safer," she said. "No one is invincible, these things sometimes happen, so you have to take precaution and just always be aware of what is going on around you. Just lock your doors - even in a city like Eau Claire - you just never know who is out there."

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