A woman who was attacked with a knife while on a hiking trip in Havasupai said she was trying to “count the blessings, not the curses,” while knife wounds in her neck and hand heal.
Alexis Rowan, 27, of
New York, was attacked by a stranger after she stopped to ask for directions near the end of her hike into Havasupai, about 8 miles below the rim of the Grand Canyon. Rowan, who said she is not an avid hiker, realized during her hike down that she did not want to hike back out after her camping trip was over.
She was inspired to visit Havasupai after seeing beautiful pictures of it. She and her friend have birthdays within two days of one another, and they had always wanted to go on a trip to celebrate.
The attack happened August 12, Rowan’s first day of her hiking trip.
When she reached the village of Supai, she asked the first person she saw for directions to get to the gift shop so she could pre-arrange a helicopter to take her and her friend out of the canyon when their camping trip was over. The man she asked, identified by FBI documents as 29-year-old Taylor Nardo Paya, pointed to a nearby home, but Rowan said she immediately got an unsettling feeling that she was not in a safe situation.
She decided to call a friend from home on FaceTime, because the friend she was hiking with had gone a bit ahead. She was wearing Meta glasses, so she was able to make the call with the glasses to try to be discreet but felt Paya following behind her. She immediately told her friend on the phone not to hang up, and when the friend asked if she was okay, she said no.
“As soon as I said no, I felt the knife on my neck,” she said.
She was cut in the neck and in the hand. According to FBI documents, the cut on her neck was about five to six centimeters long. During the attack, Rowan’s screams alerted a woman who was in a house nearby. When the woman came outside, Paya picked up Rowan’s phone, which she had dropped, and ran away.
“She was like an angel sent from above to save the day,” Rowan said. The woman knew who Paya was and took Rowan inside to give first aid while calling for authorities. According to FBI documents, Paya lives in Supai.
Rowan had not seen her friend since before she was attacked and was worried he could have been attacked too. The group was able to find him unharmed.
During the attack, Rowan said she was thinking of her two young children and needing to get home to them.
After receiving treatment in Supai, Rowan and her friend were transported out of the canyon. She flew home to New York the next day, she said.
Her stitches have now been removed, but she still has pain and soreness from her injuries.
According to the FBI report, Paya was arrested on suspicion of intentionally assaulting a person with a dangerous weapon. In 2016, Paya was sentenced to five years in prison after he assaulted a woman in December 2015 and stole her belongings.
Daniel Kaiser, the attorney representing Paya, said Paya remains in custody and he hopes Rowan makes a full recovery.
“At the same time, Mr. Paya is entitled to the same constitutional protections afforded to every person accused of a crime in this country,” Kaiser said in an email. “He is presumed innocent, and the government bears the burden of proving every element of any charge against him beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Kaiser said Paya’s past criminal history does not outweigh his constitutional presumption of innocence.
“As Mr. Paya's attorney, I intend to thoroughly investigate the allegations, carefully review the government's evidence, and vigorously protect his constitutional rights,” Kaiser said. “Until that process occurs, I ask the public and the media to remember a fundamental principle of our justice system: an accusation is not a conviction, and every accused person is presumed innocent unless and until the government proves otherwise beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Rowan said she is trying to stay positive after the attack but cautioned other travelers to be watchful of their surroundings.
“All travelers must stay safe,” she said. “We are blessed to have such a beautiful world to explore, but there are people who are so ugly they cannot see the greatness.”
Corina Vanek covers development for The Arizona Republic. Reach her at cvanek@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X @CorinaVanek.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Woman attacked with knife while hiking to Havasupai in Grand Canyon
