Blogger Asks: Is the Acid-Attack Victim Conning Us?Blogger Asks: Is the Acid-Attack Victim Conning Us?

A lengthy piece posted yesterday by the Vancouver Voice, written by contributor Marcus Griffith, has a very controversial headline: "Caustic Questions Surround Acid Attack." It's about the apparently tragic tale of Bethany Storro, the young woman whose face was burned with acid in downtown Vancouver, allegedly after a woman passing by randomly threw it in her face.

But unlike so many other articles about the attack, this one opens with an apology, followed by a fairly sharp question:

Sometimes being a journalist requires asking questions one dislikes even thinking. In the case of the nationally infamous acid attack near Esther Short Park, being a thorough journalist meant asking the victim, Bethany Storro, if the attack actually happened in the manner she claims.

Yes, I did an inconceivably asinine act. I asked a young woman freshly out of her face-bandages if the attack that put her in the hospital was the result of a stranger’s violence. And I did it via Facebook’s friend request and message system because it was the only way I have to contact her. As of this post, I haven’t gotten a response.

I don’t feel good about asking her such a pointed question and I expect backlash for doing it. Given the opportunity to do it again, I would try to find a more tactful and discrete manner.

Yet, in the course of my journalistic probe into the matter, I spoke to several people who claimed to have witnessed the incident. Two of them stated Storro was clearly alone when she dropped to the ground screaming. Alone. As in no one attacking her and especially no African-American female being in the area, let alone fleeing the scene after the attack.

So why is Mr. Griffith so suspicious about Storro's account of what happened? Keep reading.

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