Acid-throwing woman sought in Washington

Sept 3, 2010

28-year-old victim's face sizzled, bubbled after attack

Police in Vancouver, Wash., are on the hunt for a woman who threw acid in the face of another woman outside a local Starbucks coffee shop on Monday.


Bethany Storro, 28, told reporters Thursday she was getting something out of the trunk of her car when a woman holding a cup came up to her and asked: "Hey pretty girl, do you want to drink this?"

The woman then splashed the contents of the cup — believed to be hydrochloric or sulphuric acid — on her, causing her to stumble in pain and fall to the ground screaming. The other woman ran off.

Storro said she felt agonizing pain as the skin on her face bubbled and sizzled and portions of the blouse she was wearing disintegrated.

"It was the most painful thing ever," said Storro, her head wrapped in white bandages following surgery Wednesday night. "My heart stopped. It ripped through my clothing the instant it touched my shirt. I could feel it burning through my second layer of skin."

Doctors at Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland performed surgery on Storro's face Wednesday night, removing dead skin from the areas that were most deeply injured.

Storro credits a new pair of sunglasses, which she had bought minutes earlier and was wearing, for protecting her eyes and sparing her vision.

'When I first saw her, she had this weirdness about her — like jealousy, rage.— Bethany Storro, on her attacker


Police are seeking a black woman with a ponytail in the Monday attack.

"I have never, ever seen this girl in my entire life," Storro said. "When I first saw her, she had this weirdness about her — like jealousy, rage."

Storro said she'd like to find her assailant and ask her why she threw the acid.

Was it a dare, or did the woman wake up Monday morning and tell herself that today she was going to "carry some acid in a cup and throw it on the first person I see?" Storro asked.