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Wal-Mart Rape Victim's Boyfriend Thinks Baby Saved Her Life

Thursday, April 10, 2008 – updated: 8:51 am EDT April 11, 2008

The rape of a woman at a Wal-Mart horrified people across Central Florida, but perhaps no one as much as the accused rapist's female roommate. She said she turned him in after seeing a haunting picture on Channel 9.


RAW INTERVIEW: Suspect's Roommate Talks About Turning Him In
TEAM COVERAGE: Bond Denied For Rape Suspect As Graphic Details Emerge
1st COURT APPEARANCE: Watch Raw Video | View Slideshow
WELKER IN CUSTODY: Watch Raw Video | View Slideshow

The victim is still very shaken by this horrific crime. She did not want to speak publicly about it, but her boyfriend did.

The victim's boyfriend told Eyewitness News that he wanted to thank the public for helping to track down David Welker. He said the victim works at a school and was on her way to work Tuesday when she stopped at the Wal-Mart. She needed to pick-up some baby food, but she never made it inside the store. He said he is just thankful the victim and the baby escaped with their lives.

"I got to be strong for her. If I cry, she'll cry, so I'm supporting her. I give her credit for dealing with the situation," said the victim's boyfriend.

The victim's boyfriend said that, while he is saddened that his child witnessed the crime, he thinks the baby ultimately saved his girlfriend's life and kept the rapist from killing the victim.


Woman Discovers Roommate Is Rape Suspect

A surveillance image taken at a Bank of America did 24-year-old David Welker in. His roommate said, when she saw it on TV, she knew it was him because he was wearing her hooded sweater. She was stunned and said calling Crimeline to tell on her childhood friend was one of the toughest but, in some ways, one of the easiest things she's ever done.

Amanda Rossman is very shaken up, constantly fighting back the tears. She won't say what she did was heroic. She said, as a young mother herself, it was something she had to do.

"It just makes me sick. I couldn't even sleep last night," she said.

Rossman grew up with Welker and when she first started putting two and two together she didn't want to believe it.

"But when I saw these pictures, it's plain as daylight there," she said.

The first time Rossman saw the bank surveillance photo on Channel 9 on the day of the attack, she thought it looked like Welker. She even joked with him that night about it.

"We were just saying, 'If that's you, David, come on just tell us.' We were joking around," she said.

Rossman said he didn't really react then or the next morning when they both saw the photo on Channel 9 and she told him again it looked like him.

"He said, 'It kind of does. It's not exactly like me,'" she said.

But then something hit her, the hoodie in the photo.

"I got chills. My hair on my arms stood up," she said.

Rossman went on WFTV.com to get a closer look and realized it was her hoodie, the one she left in her Chevy Blazer. She recognized the diamond pattern in the knit and then she remembered Welker had taken her car keys without her permission the morning of the rape, the same Blazer she recognized in the bank photo.

"The top, the bar on it," she said, referring to the Blazer's window.

Rossman called Crimeline.

"All I kept thinking was I had him in the house with my daughter. I had to call right away, like, it's sickening," she said.


Graphic Details Released Of Wal-Mart Rape

Eyewitness News learned disturbing new details Thursday about the mistakes the rapist made at the Orange County Wal-Mart on John Young Parkway that gave deputies more evidence. Also, Thursday, Welker had his first court appearance where a judge denied him bond.

Rossman had no idea of what exactly her friend David Welker is accused of doing until Eyewitness News showed her the arrest report, something Eyewitness News obtained Thursday, and the details in it are frightening.

Not only did the rapist attack the mother in front of her 15-month-old daughter, he also held a gun to the baby's head. After the rape, police said a security camera caught Welker coming back where he dropped something on the ground. Investigators came back to look and found a condom.

The victim said she came to Wal-Mart at 6:00am on her way to work to pick up milk and baby items for her 15-month-old daughter. Deputies say a security camera video shows Welker had already been casing customers for nearly an hour. When the victim got out of her car, according to the arrest affidavit, Welker stuck a gun in her face and forced her back in the car, "which she did out of fear and the life of her child."

The victim said Welker took a handful of red or orange condoms out of his pocket and then raped her. "While doing this he had the gun still in his hand and rested against the baby," according to the arrest affidavit.

Later, Welker took her money and debit card and forced her into the trunk. "He told her he was not going to shut the trunk all the way since the baby was there, but he told her not to look which way he went," according to the arrest affidavit.

The condom found at the scene will be tested as part of the investigation.

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