PHILADELPHIA (TSWT) — Police are looking for the person who set a woman on fire in a horrific attack in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood. Police said it was 11.30pm last Thursday when a woman was assaulted and set on fire. Philadelphia police have launched an aggravated assault case.
There is a video of the aftermath of the attack on 36-year-old Alyssa Morales. CBS3 decided not to show the video because it is too graphic.
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The victim’s mother, Leah Ann Morales, met CBS3 outside Temple University Hospital.
“I watched the first three seconds when I knew it was her and I couldn’t watch anymore,” Leah Ann Morales said. “You know it’s your daughter, and you know she’s burned, and then you’re like, ‘She needs help, can someone help her?’ And I found it on the internet.
His daughter Alyssa remains in the burn unit. In an exclusive interview, Leah Ann Morales said she learned about the vicious attack on social media. Someone set her daughter on fire in a park in the city’s Kensington neighborhood on Thursday night.
“She will live, but she will have permanent damage,” said Leah Ann Morales. “She’s going to have to have a new face. I say, she’ll never have the face she was born with, and they said that’s the hardest part when she can look in the mirror and see a different face looking at her.
College graduate Alyssa Morales went to Pennsbury High School in Bucks County. She has a daughter but, Leah Ann said, years ago, Alyssa, who is homeless, fell on hard times and struggled.
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“She’s never hurt anyone, just herself. She’s just a drug addict, misguided. She went to college and she just fell in this hole and can’t get out,” said said Morales.
Police are reviewing surveillance video and trying to track down eyewitnesses who have critical information about who did this to Alyssa Morales.
“I’m sad, I’m broken, I’m angry, so angry,” Leah Ann Morales said. “I just want to know who did this. You don’t want to know who did this? Wouldn’t everyone want to know who did this? Who could do it? Do you want them to start over? They come home and laugh, ‘Oh, did I get away with that?’
Alyssa Morales could be in hospital for the rest of the summer. She will need facial reconstructive surgery. Her mother said she will also have to go to rehab to relearn how to do basic things.
If you have any information about this horrific attack, call the police at 215-686-TIPS.
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An online fundraiser is organized in his name by his family.
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