Kidnapping, sexual assault victim speaks out for first time since attacker was sent back to jail

PITTSBURGH — Target 11's Rick Earle sat down with a woman who survived being kidnapped and held as a sex slave for the first time since a judge sent her attacker back to prison.

Alicia Kozakiewicz was out of the country when the judge made the decision to send him back to prison, but now she's back in her hometown and talking about the 10-month ordeal.

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Kozakiewicz returned to her hometown to speak to students at Plum High School about internet safety and to visit family for Thanksgiving.

Now, she no longer has to worry about running into the man who kidnapped and sexually assaulted her nearly two decades ago.

"It's my home again and I'm able to walk around downtown and it's just, it's so freeing," Kozakiewicz said.

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Target 11 broke the story earlier this year that Scott Tyree had been released after 17 years in prison to a halfway house less than 4 miles from Kozakiewicz's parents home, where as a 13-year-old she was abducted by a man she met on the internet.

Kozakiewicz and her family had no idea he had been released until Target 11 told them.

Even though Tyree is from Virginia and had no connection to Pittsburgh, the U.S. Attorney's Office defended the move, saying inmates are typically released where they were prosecuted.

"At first I was full of anger at them and I couldn't understand how something like this could happen. How could they be so careless?," Kozakiewicz said.

For months, Kozakiewicz, who lives in New York, fought the release, even testifying in front of her attacker.

As the case dragged on, Tyree was accused of violating his parole after viewing pornography online.

In October, he was ordered back to prison for two years and when released, he'll go to a halfway house in Harrisburg.

"It's not the greatest solution.  but it is so much better and I am grateful for it.  I just, I'm so grateful for everybody involved," Kozakiewicz said.

Cox Media Group