Local Woman Raped by Safeway (friend of mine)

Sebastopol Rape Victim Comes Forward with Plea

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | January 30, 2016, 4:57PM
Tilly Cretcher is the Sebastopol resident who six weeks ago told police a man grabbed and raped her as she walked toward her home not far from the Main Street/Healdsburg Avenue bend.

Cretcher is speaking up and publicly revealing her name, which is unusual for a victim of sexual assault. No suspect has been identified or arrested in her case.

A 51-year-old caregiver, Cretcher said she’s conflicted about telling her story, but she and her husband, Bill, whom she says was disabled by a stroke and is unable to work, are in a terrible spot financially.

On Jan. 5, less than three weeks after the reported rape, Cretcher was badly injured in a traffic collision on Gravenstein Highway South. The CHP says it appears she attempted a U-turn and pulled in front of another vehicle.

“I have a broken neck and I have a shoulder injury that prevents me from using my left arm very much,” she said. “I won’t be working for three or four months.”

Friends of Cretcher have posted a crowdfunding appeal at www.gofundme.com/f639vcuc.

“It has been a very rough patch,” Robin Durrie wrote in the online GoFundMe request.

The appeal asks for $20,000 for living expenses and the costs of medical care and a replacement car.

Cretcher said she hopes that for her to reveal her name and describe her hardships since alleged Dec. 20 attack “might be helpful for the community. It’s like a way to channel the anger that they feel.”