Mums 'raped' at Bahamas beach bar had torn bathing suits, nurse who helped says

15 February 2024 , 17:03

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The nurse who treated the two Kentucky mothers who were allegedly raped in the Bahamas said their bathing suits were ripped and that they were covered in bruises (Image: WKYT)

New details have emerged in the harrowing rape case involving two Kentucky mothers who had been vacationing in the Bahamas, with the nurse who treated them revealing that both were in "horrible shambles" with ripped bathing suits, bruises and other injuries.

LaDonna Batty had been drinking at the shack near the beach where Amber Shearer and Dongayla Dobson had been relaxing on the fateful morning of February 1. All three had been on a Carnival Cruise, vacationing in the tropics, having stopped to get off on the Bahamian island of Grand Bahama at a resort called Pirate's Cove.

She recalled the moment she and her husband heard someone desperately screaming for help as they sipped their drinks. Being a nurse, she rushed to find the source of the screaming and was led to the resort's lobby, which is when the Arkansas resident said she found the women slipping in and out of consciousness as they cried and vomited.

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LaDonna Batty, the nurse who treated the two Kentucky mothers, said the scene terrified her and that it was clear an assault had occurred (FOX News)

Bruises covered their bodies, and their bathing suits had been torn and were all "out of place," she told Fox News. It was clear, she said, that they had been violated and assaulted horribly. Shearer kept repeating that she had been raped, and Batty told the publication: "I had no disbelief at what happened. These girls had been assaulted and hurt."

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Batty said it was "a bad situation" and was continuing to worsen. Without many tools with which to treat the women, both 31, she said she was able to document their injuries, check their vitals and ask Shearer, who was reportedly slightly more alert than her best friend, what had happened to them.

But what stuck with Batty wasn't the gruesome injuries she said she helped to treat — it was the terror the women had experienced from the ordeal, which heightened exponentially when security footage of the incident was reviewed that showed one of the resort's employees.

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Dobson and Shearer reportedly had bruises all over their legs, ripped bathing suits and were shaking, crying and vomiting after the alleged assault (WKYT)

It's not clear what exactly the footage shows, but the resort brought him in for the women to identify, at which point Batty said they began screaming and crying and showcasing their absolute terror and trauma. "They were trembling even more when they led him into the room," Batty said. "They were in complete shambles," she added of the entire ordeal. She said the scene was "enough to scare [her]."

That employee and another one were fired and arrested for the alleged rape. They are aged 54 and 40, but not much else is known about the suspected perpetrators, just that they were both employees.

The rape had allegedly occurred after the women were offered tropical drinks from an employee, which they claim were spiked. About 15 minutes in, not even through their first drinks, they were falling all over the place, completely intoxicated, Dobson's mother, Frankie King, told Fox News in a separate interview.

Dobson and Shearer had allegedly been given spiked tropical drinks (WKYT)

The women had been on a Carnival Cruise that had stopped in the Bahamas (Dongayla Dobson/Facebook)

She recalls FaceTiming with them and seeing how drunk they were, which she said was odd given how few drinks they had consumed. She also described the moment she received one of the worst texts of her life: "Call us now we've been drugged and raped," Dobson sent her.

Both women were reportedly found unconscious in a bathroom at the resort initially. King praised Batty for what she called heroism, lauding the nurse for helping her daughter and her lifelong friend and then continuing to check up on them every day since they returned to Kentucky.

Batty had allegedly found the women at an airport in Florida where some of the cruise-goers flew out from after the journey and had exchanged information with them and texted and called them every day to make sure they were alright.

Bruises covered the women's legs (Amber Nicole Shearer/Facebook)

The women are now at home recovering from their injuries and trauma (Dongayla Dobson/Facebook)

The women are both at home recovering now, and Batty is also back in Arkansas, helping others at her day job. But justice is slow to be served in the case, with Batty stating that the resort has since publicly denied the women's claims of their assault and stated that surveillance footage "conflict[s]" with their stories.

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Batty said she was shocked to find out the resort doesn't believe the women and said that, regardless of what the footage shows, she knows how both reacted to the man that was brought in and also how traumatised they both were when she began to treat them.

"I don't know why they're tearing their story apart," she said. "But I have no disbelief about what happened to them."

Jeremiah Hassel