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See the full story · 1 sourcesNew York City woman slashed during Arizona hiking trip By Darla Miles Friday, August 21, 2026 8:22PM Stream New York's #1 news - AccuWeather - original content 24/7 NEW YORK (WABC) -- A 27-year-old New York City woman is recovering after she said she was slashed during a birthday hiking trip on the Havasupai Reservation in Arizona.
Alexis Rowan needed 10 stitches in her neck and three stitches on her left hand after the attack.
It happened last Wednesday as Rowan was completing 8 miles of a 10-mile hike.
She had briefly separated from a friend who was walking ahead of her when she encountered 29-year-old Taylor Nardo Paya, a Havasupai tribe member and previously convicted felon for robbery.
"I didn't think anything of it, it was the first person that I've seen in the village. And I said, 'hey, excuse me, is that the gift shop?'" Rowan said.
Rowan said she immediately felt uneasy during the encounter.
"I kept walking, I went to go in and that's when he just came up from behind...and as soon as I felt my neck, I'm like, 'oh my God, I'm going to die,'" she said.
In Ring camera video, it appears as if Paya was trying to drag Rowan away after she fell to the ground.
"I was like, oh my God, my neck., I can't die like this, this is not the way, and I was like, I have my kids to go home to," Rowan said.
Reservation police tracked Paya down the following day by pinging Rowan's stolen phone and arrested him.
Rowan's mother, Tricia Rowan, credited a woman who heard her daughter's screams and opened a door to help.
"I'm just so grateful for the woman that opened the door that heard her screams, it's something you can never unhear," Tricia Rowan said.
She said her daughter fought to survive the attack.
"And she's a fighter. She fought to make sure she's coming home to her babies, and she's my baby. So I'm so glad she made it," Tricia Rowan said.
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