Scars and bruises are not supposed to be what Suyapa Ramos took home with her from a dream vacation in Turks and Caicos.
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"I fought for my life," Ramos said when she spoke with our sister station WABC. "It was so scary to feel yourself so close to death."
It comes at a time when the New Jersey mother never felt more alive - dancing by night and kicking her feet up at the beach by day.
But her memories of the pristine ocean views were all washed away on March 10, the last night of her trip, as she tried to find a taxi from a bar back to her hotel.
"I believe after 10 they don't run and that was something I found out the hard way," Ramos said. "I trusted someone who said they were a taxi."
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Everyone at the bar seemed to know Davidson Martin, she said.
She didn't see any red flags until she said he viciously attacked her in his car out of nowhere.
"That was the scariest thing I had to encounter -- to come face to face with evil. Pure evil," she said.
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She's now without the ability to see that evil because of the loss of vision in her left eye. She can certainly still hear him.
"While he was beating me, he was growling at me. He was trying to poke my eye out," she said.
Ramos was able to break free.
Her alleged attacker was arrested just two days later, but her story, she says, can't be underestimated.
"It wasn't just a woman. It was a mom, a daughter, a grandmother, a sister, a friend and an American tourist," Ramos said.
The state department urges increased caution when traveling to Turks and Caicos.
The majority of crime happens in Providenciales.
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They warn people to not walk alone at night and don't resist a robbery.
Ramos says Martin took her phone, but it was later found.
She said he did not make sexual advances and doesn't know why he attacked her. She does wish she had traveled in a group.
The suspect is charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm. His bail is set at $10,000 and is due back in court in May.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help raise money for following Ramos' vicious assault.