Vancouver acid-burn victim released after 'copycat' attack

PORTLAND, Ore. – The Vancouver woman attacked with acid this past week has been released from the hospital.

She was released Sunday afternoon, after having improved to fair condition on Saturday.

But in the wake of her release we're learning about a second woman attacked this week in the same way. ABC News is reporting that the attack is suspected to be a copycat of the Vancouver, Wash., attack.

"It immediately started to just burn," says the new U.S. acid-attack victim, this one from Mesa, Ariz.

Mesa-resident Derri Velarde now has second degree burns on her face and shoulders from acid thrown at her from a woman she didn't know. It happened this past Friday, Sept. 4, in the parking lot of her Arizona apartment. You can still see the acid stains on her front door, left from when she ran in to get help.
 
"I open my car door and I see a woman walking up with what looked like a drink of water in her hand," Velarde said. "She just looked at me with these eyes as if she was saying something...."

But the stranger said nothing. Instead she tossed the contents of the cup, which turned out to be an acid, on the unsuspecting woman.

This differs from the attack on Bethany Storro in Vancouver on Monday, Aug. 30. She says a woman approached her saying "Hey pretty girl, do you want to drink this?"

The woman who is believed to have attacked Storro, depicted in the sketch below, and the acid-thrower in Mesa both got away. We do not yet have a sketch of Velarde's attacker.

Prior to both of these attacks was one in northern Washington on Friday, Aug. 6. In that attack a man reportedly tossed a corrosive chemical into a Puyallup woman's face. He also got away; his sketch has been included below.


Composite sketch released by the Vancouver police of the suspect who they say threw acid in the face of Bethany Storro Monday evening in Vancouver:


Bethany Storro recovering after her attack:


Police sketch shows man suspected of tossing a noxious chemical into a Puyallup woman's face, causing severe burns: