More rape crisis volunteers needed in Tarrant County

As the rapist pressed his knife to her throat, Heather Tatom’s loud gasp awakened a child sleeping nearby.

“I thought I was going to die,” Tatom said.

Manuel Salamanca Jr. had slithered into her Benbrook bedroom through an unlocked window on the night of Aug. 9, 2001.

“He was in my bed and over me,” she said. “He pushed my head to the side and told me not to scream.”

Tatom and the children she was caring for survived that night, and now she is using her experience to help others as a victim advocate with the Women’s Center of Tarrant County.

The center’s clientele is growing so fast that Tatom and other volunteers are on the verge of being overwhelmed, said Deborah Caddy, Women’s Center rape crisis and victim services director. A volunteer orientation will be Saturday at the center.

Women’s Center volunteers assisted 659 victims who went to local hospitals for rape exams in 2015, an increase of 15.6 percent from 2014, according to the center.

“We need people to man the phones, take hotline calls and talk to victims and the relatives of victims,” Caddy said.

“We need volunteers to talk to people who are having problems in their life and who can respond to hospitals where victims are coming in and who need advocates to get them through that critical moment.”

Advocates are often called in the middle of the night to assist victims who may be angry, tearful, afraid or injured, Caddy said. Advocates tell survivors about the cemter’s services and work with them, their families and law enforcement until the cases reach an end, Caddy said.

“We are looking for people who can give of themselves, who have compassion, who are passionate about the work and who feel strongly that no one deserves to have this to happen to them,” Caddy said.

Talking with family, friends, faith leaders and counselors about her assault is what saved her, Tatom said.

“The stigma attached to rape is one of the biggest problems,” Tatom said. “It’s very much a crime that’s kept in the dark.”

Tatom’s daughter and a niece and nephew, all under 10, were sleeping in another bedroom on the night of the assault. Her 5-year-old niece was asleep on a blanket on the floor, and began moving about the same time Tatom felt the press of Salamanca’s knife.

The rapist moved to the side so the little girl could not see him as Tatom cooed the child back to sleep, hoping to keep her safe.

“She was still kind of droopy headed and I rolled over with the knife still in my back and patted her back to sleep and said, ‘It’s OK, it’s OK,’ ” Tatom remembered.

Once her niece fell back to sleep, Salamanca bound Tatom with duct tape, blindfolded her with a ski mask, took her into the living room and raped her for about an hour. Tatom said she was the seventh of nine women Salamanca was accused of sexually assaulting.

In 2001 and 2002, Salamanca, now 44, was convicted of aggravated sexual assault with a deadly weapon in Tarrant County and four counts of aggravated sexual assault in Johnson County. Salamanca was sentenced to multiple life terms on the sexual assault convictions and is not eligible for parole until 2032, Texas Department of Criminal Justice records show.

Now she lives with her husband, several large dogs and a big gun, Tatom said.

“I’m not the same person that I was before the assault,” she said. “I understand now that your worst nightmare, the thing that people think can never happen to them, happened to me.”

Tatom and others say they can only guess why the numbers of sexual assault exam reports have increased in Tarrant County. Center officials say it is encouraging that politicians, athletes, college officials and others have started to talk openly about sexual assaults.

“That’s what I’m kind of hoping that this interview does,” Tatom said. “... Talking about it is one of the biggest things you can do.”

This story was originally published January 21, 2016 at 3:30 PM with the headline "More rape crisis volunteers needed in Tarrant County."