Homicide suspect linked to rape
TACOMA – Sabrina Rasmussen is haunted by the experience of being abducted and raped in 2000, but knowing that the man accused of the attack – Terapon Adhahn – is also facing an aggravated murder charge has put her own nightmare in grisly perspective.
Now 19, Rasmussen said she realized she was lucky to be alive when she returned from a trip to Eastern Washington and heard about 12-year-old Zina Linnik’s abduction from behind her home during a July Fourth neighborhood fireworks display. Adhahn guided detectives to Linnik’s body and has been charged in her death.
“That could have been me,” Rasmussen said in an interview at her mother’s Tacoma-area home. “I’m pretty lucky to be alive today.”
Rasmussen’s own case was unsolved until detectives said a DNA sample taken from Adhahn matched evidence found on the underwear Rasmussen wore seven years earlier.
She said knowing that a man charged in her attack was behind bars brought long-awaited relief.
Rasmussen agreed to share her story so other victims can draw strength from it.
Her mother, Nancy Rasmussen, said she still cries when thinking about the attack on her daughter.
Sabrina Rasmussen graduated from Fife High School and recently moved in with her boyfriend. She hopes to land a job as a traffic flagger.
On July 19, Rasmussen went to the Pierce County Courthouse to see Adhahn arraigned on her rape and kidnap charges. When she saw his face as he was led away in handcuffs, she began breathing heavily. Her hands were coated in sweat.
“I knew it was him,” she said. “Absolutely.”
Adhahn has pleaded not guilty to charges in the Rasmussen case and rape charges in the case of a girl who lived with him for three years as a teenager, as well as to murder, rape and kidnapping charges in the Linnik case.
Rasmussen said she knows she’ll be able to testify against Adhahn.
She said she’s glad he won’t face a possible death sentence if convicted in Zina’s death – prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty – because that means he’ll suffer longer.
“It’s going to hurt, and he’s not going to like it,” she said. “And he’s going to get his turn.”