NYC mom recalls escaping with her life after ex-con takes knife to her throat during hiking trip: ‘Everything was bloody’
The New York City mother of two who was violently slashed by an ex-con during a hiking trip in Arizona told The Post the brutal attack happened so fast that all she realized was that “everything was bloody.”
“All I remember is the neck slice,” 27-year-old Alexis Rowan told The Post of being horrifically attacked on Aug. 12 by local tribe member Taylor Nardo Paya, 29 — who has a chilling history of violently assaulting women.
“I didn’t feel my hand get stabbed,” she said. “I was like where am I bleeding from because my hand was covered in blood.”
“My clothes [were] covered in blood … .everything was bloody.”
Alexis thought she “was going to die alone” just one day before her 27th birthday after Paya sliced her neck and hand on the Havasupai Reservation moments after she asked him for directions.
“Once I felt [my] neck got sliced, I was like, that’s it,” she recalled to The Post of her harrowing near-death experience.
“All I know is like this is not the way I’m going out, like this is not the way I’m ending my life,” Alexis added.
Fortunately, a nearby neighbor heard Alexis’ cries for help and raced out to provide aid.
“The lady was that angel sent from heaven. If it wasn’t for her God only knows,” Alexis said. “I had blood all over her house.”
“She saved my life. Her opening the door made this man [run] away, scared him away.”
“People are evil,” Rowan’s mom Tricia Rowan said. “You can’t fix him. People like that deserves to never see the light of day and walk free.”
Tricia said that “you cannot rehabilitate” people like Paya who she describes as being “a threat to society.”
“There is no place on earth that they belong, other than behind bars like an animal in a cage because they’re predators and they prey on innocent victims,” Tricia said.
Online court records show that the knife-wielding maniac has a lengthy rap sheet of prior misdemeanor offenses in Arizona in addition to a stint in prison.
Paya was sentenced to five years behind bars and ordered to undergo sex offender treatment and counseling after he pleaded guilty in Sep. 2016 to robbing and assaulting a woman in Dec. 2015, FOX10 reported.
The 29-year-old ex-con was arrested on the Reservation the day after the attack and was taken into federal custody on Aug. 17 because the attack occurred on tribal land, according to Tricia and the outlet.
“So if he comes out, what next? Someone doesn’t survive. We are just lucky that she fought back and the cameras caught [the assault],” Tricia said.
Alexis said the “next person may not be as strong, may not be prepared mentally that someone is going to attack them or able to put them in danger.’
The mom of two recalled being “mentally aware” that she “was in danger [and] not safe” after her initial interaction with Paya.
“My gut instinct was like, ‘this is not okay. I’m not ok,’” Alexis explained.
Looking toward the New York City skyline, Alexis told The Post she “never wants to look at another mountain again” after what happened in Arizona.
“I’m back with my loved ones – my family, my children and just New York City as a whole,” Alexis said of her homecoming.
While Paya remains in custody, Tricia said she is “not going to let this go.”
“I am that mom. Don’t mess with my babies,” she warned. “I will not stop until justice is served.”
More than a week on from the bloody attack, Alexis is on the road to recovery after she got 10 stitches in her neck and three stitches on her left hand.
“He picked the wrong one. My daughter is a fighter, she is a warrior,” Tricia proudly said. “She wasn’t going to take it.”
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