What began as a once-in-a-lifetime birthday hiking trip turned into a terrifying fight for survival for Alexis Rowan, a 27-year-old New York City mother of two who was left with a slashed neck, a stab wound to her hand, 13 stitches and trauma she says she will never forget.
Rowan survived the attack on a northern Arizona mountain trail after her screams carried to a nearby home, prompting a woman to come outside and forcing the suspect to run off, according to harrowing doorbell camera footage.
“I was like, oh my God, my neck: I can’t die like this, this is not the way,” Rowan told WABC after returning to New York City following the ordeal during a tourist hike in Arizona. “I have my kids to go home to.”
Ring camera footage captured the 27-year-old hiker on the ground in the Arizona mountains, fighting for her life after a knife-wielding attacker slashed her neck and fled only when a nearby woman stepped outside after hearing her desperate cries for help. (FOX 10 Phoenix)
Graphic photos shared by the New York Post showed the deep wound across Rowan’s neck, which required 10 stitches, as well as three additional stitches for the stab injury to her hand.
Rowan told the Post she never wants “to look at another mountain again,” adding that the scar on her neck will be a constant reminder of the attack every time she sees her reflection.
The attack happened Wednesday, Aug. 19, during a hike at the Havasupai Indian Reservation, one day after Rowan’s 27th birthday. She had briefly fallen behind a friend when the suspect approached. Authorities identified the suspect as Taylor Nardo Paya, 29, a member of the Havasupai tribe whose criminal history included a guilty plea to assault, according to FOX 10 Phoenix.
Ring camera footage showed Arizona hiker Alexis Rowan, 27, struggling with her attacker after he slashed her neck with a knife, leaving her bleeding heavily. (FOX 10 Phoenix/Ring)
“It was the first person that I’ve seen in the village, and I said, ‘Hey, excuse me, is that the gift shop?'” Rowan told WABC in one of the few interviews she granted. News Outlet reached out to her and her mother for an interview, but they have yet to respond.
“I kept walking, I went to go in and that’s when he just came up from behind,” she continued, “and as soon as I felt my neck, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to die.'”
Footage showed Rowan fighting for her life as she was dragged by the hair from the ground – with her screams finally bringing a woman to open the door and causing the suspect to flee. The video obtained by News Outlet did not have the sound of the screams, but they were key to the suspect fleeing, according to reports.
Federal police usher the neck-slashing suspect off after arresting him using the pings to the cellphone he reportedly stole from Alexis Rowan, 27, video from local authorities showed. (FOX 10 Phoenix)
“I’m just so grateful for the woman that opened the door that heard her screams; it’s something you can never unhear,” Tricia Rowan, Alexis’ mother, told WABC of the “angel sent from heaven” woman who opened the door to help.
“She’s a fighter. She fought to make sure she’s coming home to her babies, and she’s my baby. So I’m so glad she made it,” Tricia Rowan said. “He picked the wrong one. My daughter is a fighter, she is a warrior. She wasn’t going to take it.”
Federal police usher the neck-slashing suspect off to the helicopter, video from local authorities showed. (FOX 10 Phoenix)
Alexis Rowan told the Post she was “mentally aware” of the “danger” after her initial interaction with Paya.
“My gut instinct was like, ‘This is not OK. I’m not OK,’” she said, adding that 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.”
Reservation police located Paya the following day by pinging Rowan’s phone, which prosecutors say he allegedly stole after it fell from one of her backpacks.
Alexis Rowan, 27, is holding her slashed and bloodied neck as she walks up to the home of the woman that came out of the house to scare off her attacker, saving her life, Ring camera footage showed. (FOX 10 Phoenix/Ring)
He was arrested and later taken into federal custody because the alleged attack occurred on tribal land, according to reports. Video obtained by News Outlet showed Paya being cuffed and taken away on a golf cart by federal police before another video showed him in an orange jumpsuit being perp-walked to a helicopter.
Paya faces a federal assault with a deadly weapon charge, according to FOX 10. Court records show Paya pleaded guilty in 2016 to robbing and assaulting another woman in a 2015 attack, for which he received a five-year prison sentence and was ordered to undergo sex offender treatment and counseling.
The victim’s mother wants to see the perpetrator locked up indefinitely.
“People are evil,” she told the Post, calling him “a threat to society” and someone “you cannot rehabilitate.”
“There is no place on earth that they belong,” she added, “other than behind bars like an animal in a cage because they’re predators and they prey on innocent victims.”
