Preloading

A Woman Enslaved By An Internet Predator At 13 Shares Her Ordeal

Aired on 04/15/2009 | CC tv-pg
On New Year's Day in 2002, 13-year-old Alicia Kozakiewicz walked out of her parents home in a quiet Pittsburgh suburb to meet a man she had been chatting with online for several months. It wasn't long after getting into his car that Alicia realized her "friend" was a sadistic child predator intent on kidnap and torture. Scott Tyree, a 38-year-old man, drove his young victim hundreds of miles to his house in Virginia, where he chained Alicia in the basement and brutally attacked her for four days—until the FBI was able to locate the girl. Tyree was sentenced to 19 years in federal prison. In 2009, Alicia appeared on The Oprah Show to speak about the grooming techniques her abuser had used to gain her trust. In this clip, Alicia describes the whole ordeal in detail, and offers words of caution for other young people communicating with strangers on the Internet.