Helluva night.

Woman flees captors by flinging blood

'A 36-year-old marketing coordinator for a company that sells fine china thought she recognized a woman who offered her a ride home from a bar.

But she was mistaken, and that nearly proved to be a fatal error early Tuesday after she was knocked unconscious in a van and awoke in an apartment surrounded by robbers, she said Thursday.

The woman said she escaped the home because she tricked seven captors by screaming she had AIDS and flinging her blood at them.

"I was willing to say anything to get out alive," the woman said in an interview Thursday. "It was very terrifying. They were trying to kill me."

She ran barefoot to Colorado Boulevard early Tuesday morning and flagged down a motorist.

The investigation is continuing, said Sonny Jackson, Denver police spokesman.

The victim, who is afraid of retaliation and asked that her name not be used, said she lost contact with a friend at the Broken Arrow Bar on East Colfax Avenue and began walking home about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday.

She thought she recognized one of three women in a white van parked at a convenience store and asked them for a ride home, she said. When they drove past her house, she demanded they stop.

Someone bashed her in the back of the head and she became unconscious, she said.

When she awoke, about 6 a.m., she was lying on a bed in an apartment surrounded by strangers. She asked where she was and started to cry, she said.

She saw a woman going through her purse in the living room, she said. She tried to walk out.

" 'Just let me go; I'll forget about this,' " she said she pleaded.

When she walked out of the bedroom, one of five women inside the tiny apartment hit her in the face, she said. Several other women started pummeling her face and body with fists and an object that felt like a mallet, she said.

" 'Shut up or we're going to kill you,' " she said one of the women threatened. Another woman said they should put her in "the trunk," the victim said.

"Their intent was to kill me. They were like a pack of wolves," the woman said.

A woman came at her with a two-pronged barbecue fork, she said. At that moment she believed they were going to kill her, she said.

"They grabbed my shirt," she said. "I had to think quick. My nose was bleeding. I started to fling my blood at them. I told them I have AIDS."

The women backed away, and she dashed out the door. Two women followed her, one pulling her hair, the other grabbing her body.

"I don't know how I was able to get away," she said. "It was pure adrenaline."

She ran to Colorado Boulevard and waved down drivers, who called police. Her face was covered with blood, according to a police report.'