CHELAN, WA. -- In an exclusive interview with KREM 2 News, the victim of an incident that left her close to death in the middle of nowhere last fall says she believes her ex-boyfriend is to blame.
"Do you think Richard Pasma did this to you?" KREM 2 News asked Kristen Grindley at her family's vacation home on Lake Chelan Thursday.
"I do," Grindley replied.
Grindley was found late one night in November, 2009 in the middle of Albion Road in Whitman County, unconscious, with broken bones and a fractured skull.
Thursday, she was laughing and joking with her family sitting around the table after weeks of rehabilitation. Grindley will likely face challenges the rest of her life as a result of what she endured that night.
"I just feel really lucky and I'm happy to be alive," said Grindley.
Pasma was charged with Felony Hit and Run by the Whitman County Prosecutor's Office Thursday. Pasma had been the only person of interest named in the case, and admitted he and Grindley had been fighting the day she was found.
Investigators believe Pasma may have pushed Grindley out of his truck, but he claims she got into his truck without him knowing, and fell out while he was four-wheeling.
Although she can't remember anything that happened from Halloween to January, 2010, Grindley says she knows she was in an abusive relationship with Pasma while the two attended Washington State University.
"The things I've been told I can see it happening because of how he treated me," said Grindley, "I don't remember it but I know what kind of person he is."
Grindley's mother, Pat, told KREM 2 News her daughter called her last October after the couple had a fight.
"She called me and asked me to come and get her," said Pat. "I wish I had done that because she wouldn't be in the condition she's in now."
Grindley says she's okay with not remembering every detail of what happened to her that night on Albion Road.
"I'm happy I don't remember because I'd be a lot more upset," she said.
