'Disrespectful' band member scalped
A member of a US punk gang scalped a teenage girl apparently as punishment for her disrespectful behaviour toward women, police said.
The victim, a 16-year-old who had a mohawk style haircut before the attack, survived.
Police in Boise, Idaho, are searching for Marianne Dahle, 26, who allegedly tied the teenager up and used a four-inch knife to cut away the crown and back portion of her scalp.
She faces 14 years in prison for the assault.
Dahle was visiting Kirkham Hot Springs in central Idaho with the girl and a friend when the attack took place last month. The teenager spent two weeks in the hospital and is now recovering at home.
“When I say this gal was scalped, she was truly scalped,” said Bill Braddock, chief deputy of Boise police. “The top of her head, her hair, was completely cut off.
“The motive, as near as we’ve been told by witnesses, was retaliation for acting in a way that the adult perceived as being offensive to women as a gender.”
Braddock said the victim, Dahle and another teenage girl who witnessed the attack were long-term acquaintances who belonged to the same group. The victim’s mohawk hair cut may have played a role in the assault, he said.
“In their punk group, wearing a mohawk is a sign of being a punker, and according to their creed if you disrespect women you are not allowed to wear a mohawk,” he said. ”But I don’t think the victim had any idea in the world she was going to be scalped.”
The victim, named only as Sheila, said she thought the woman was going to cut her hair.
“Why would they do something like this to me?” Sheila asked. “I thought they were my friends.”
Doctors grafted skin from Sheila’s thigh to cover the inches-long circular patch of missing skin on her crown. She has one operation left. She wears hats to hide the healing patch of skin.
Police chief Braddock said: “It was an act of revenge. I view this as a case where an adult female is using predatory control – both psychological and sexual - toward juvenile victims. There are definitely sexual overtones to this crime,” he said.
