Rape survivor shares story of attack, trial and future with suspect due for sentencing

Rape victim speaks out ahead of sentencing

Chloe Taber, 24, is sharing her survival story 10 years after being sexually assaulted by a stranger who had broken in through her bedroom window. Eight years after the assault, authorities got a DNA match in the case, and Lazarous Lazaro Thomas is due to be sentenced on June 2 for the crime.

MANKATO, Minn. (FOX 9) - Chloe Taber, 24, is sharing her survival story 10 years after being sexually assaulted by a stranger who had broken in through her bedroom window. She was 14 at the time.

Eight years after the assault, authorities got a DNA match in the case. That man, Lazarous Lazaro Thomas, is due to be sentenced on June 2 for the crime.

Recalling the horror: Chloe Taber remembers attack

What they're saying:

"Yeah, for many years I didn't talk about it. I just recently started talking about it after I got that first call that they had a DNA hit and that's when everything kind of came flooding back in." 

Taber recalls in detail that dreadful night in May 2015, when a man broke in through her bedroom window. 

"He knew to unplug and turn off the headlamp, or the heat lamp for my lizard's cage and took my phone immediately before crawling into the bed or anything so I couldn't call for help or anything. I remember feeling him crawl over me and that's kind of when I noticed that like something's wrong. And pretty quickly after that, I had a hand over my mouth and was told that if I screamed or did anything to wake my parents or anything, that he'd kill me."  

The man who we now know is Lazarous Lazaro Thomas told her to get him a drink of water. She instead ran to her father, clothed in nothing but a T-shirt. They ran to look for the assailant and called 911. No sign of Thomas anywhere. In the following years, it was night terrors, depression and unsafe behavior.

"I struggled a lot with doing not so safe things. I ended up getting pregnant at 15. It's another one that I thought was a really weird symptom of it, or sign or whatever, is you would think after being raped that sex and those kind of things would be something that you would want nothing to do with. And I came to find out as I got older that that's not the case. Sometimes they become like victims and survivors become like hypersexual or do things not so safely, which I thought I was crazy for. But I came to find it's more common than we realize. But I did become pregnant at 15. I have a beautiful 8-year-old. She basically saved my life after the fact."

Support system before DNA match, during trial

Behind the scenes:

Chloe credits friends, family, therapists, police and others for helping her move forward after the attack. First as a young teen, then as a young woman. She has gone to every court proceeding for Lazarous Thomas. Understanding the very long process and being involved has empowered her, but also drained her physically and emotionally.

She leaned on her boyfriend, Elias Nord, whom she met just two days before the trial began. He has been her rock. And it’s Nord who wrote into FOX 9 without her knowledge.  In his letter he said in part, "This story is more about than just a trial. It's about justice, resilience, and the importance of never giving up hope. Chloe wants her experience to inspire other survivors to keep going no matter how long the road may be. Please let me know if you would be willing to share her story." 

Chloe says her attacker has shown no remorse and has not apologized.

Sentencing is June 2

What's next:

Lazarous Lazaro Thomas is due in court for sentencing Monday, June 2. She is nervous because she will face him to read her impact statement. She says she cannot forgive him, especially because he has not taken accountability. 

"How can you forgive somebody like that? Do I wish him the worst things in the world? No, I don't. I don't think anybody deserves those things. Yeah, it's just really hard to hope good for somebody sometimes." 

Chloe’s doctor is telling her to take some time off, and she plans to do that to work on self-care, spending time with family, and to plan a future knowing the man who caused her so much pain is behind bars, hurting no one else. She hopes sharing her story helps others to know they’re not alone and to reach out for help. If you’d like to help Chloe with her financial burdens from lost work time during trial and taking future time off to heal there is a GoFundMe. Chloe works as a para for children with special needs.