Taylor, a former assistant park manager for Indy Parks, says her life was upended one July afternoon in 2016 while she was working alone at the Indianapolis World Sports Park. She recounts being abducted at knifepoint, forced into the trunk of her own car, then fighting her way out using a glow-in-the-dark release latch. The attack, she says, left her with internal injuries that required emergency surgery and a suspect who has never been found, and the lingering trauma and what she describes as inconsistent support from the city eventually pushed her to leave Indianapolis altogether.
Survivor's Account: 'Casing' And A Trunk Escape
According to Taylor, the man who attacked her first wandered into the back office several times, saying he needed water and a phone. She says those visits were really “casing” the place. On his final trip in, she tells reporters, he pulled a knife, robbed her and forced her into the trunk of her vehicle.
"While I'm laying in this dark trunk, all I can see is a glow-in-the-dark release latch," she recalled to reporters. She says she pulled it, bolted back toward the building and was stabbed once in the arm and once in the abdomen. Taylor later underwent surgery for internal injuries and severed tendons, according to WIBC.
Investigators' Findings And The City's Response
Taylor says detectives told her they could not pull any usable fingerprints from the scene and that she was not interviewed by a sketch artist until October 2016, months after the July assault. She also says that while city and park leaders initially sounded supportive, the tone shifted quickly. Less than a week after what she describes as major abdominal surgery, Taylor recalls getting a call telling her she needed to come back to work.
Her account appears as part of a broader whistleblower report that paints a picture of systemic safety and staffing issues inside the department, as documented by Mirror Indy.
Indy Parks Leadership And Safety Measures
Today, Indy Parks' public staff directory lists a Park Safety Administrator as part of its leadership team, a signal that the department has at least added a role dedicated to safety since the time of Taylor's attack. The same directory lists Broad Ripple Park among the family centers where front-line staff work with the public. The staff page names Erik Davenport as Park Safety Administrator, according to Indy Parks.
Why This Still Matters
After her initial recovery, Taylor returned to Indy Parks, working at Broad Ripple Park. She says the trauma never really let go and that what she saw as brief, inadequate support from leadership convinced her and her husband to relocate out of Indianapolis.
Former employees say her story is not an isolated nightmare but one example of deeper problems, including chronic underfunding, gaps in security infrastructure and high turnover. Whistleblowers are now pressing city leaders to address those issues, according to Mirror Indy.
Legal Update
All these years later, Taylor's case remains unsolved. No suspect has been identified and Taylor says detectives found no usable fingerprints, leaving the investigation open more than a decade later. She retained legal counsel to secure short-term disability and has urged clearer protections for front-line staff. Those steps, along with additional details of the investigation, were outlined in her interview with WIBC.
