GORHAM – Bouncing back from a stabbing attack on July 24 in South Boston, a Gorham woman has been honored for her courage and character by Bryant University, which she attends.
Kayleigh Ballantyne, 21, of Gorham was attacked shortly after midnight in South Boston after being followed to her building. A Suffolk County District Attorney Office press statement in July reported that she was stabbed repeatedly with a knife.
A college field hockey player, Ballantyne fought back, driving her attacker away.
“I think that kid is tough as nails,” Cindy Hazelton, director of the Gorham Recreation Department, where Ballantyne once worked as a counselor, said this week.
A November court date has been set for her accused assailant, who has also been charged with murder in another South Boston case, in which a Massachusetts woman’s body was found on July 23.
Ballantyne, who is listed as a senior at Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I., was honored in September with the university’s distinguished character award for courage and “ability to confront the unknown.”
She is the daughter of Bruce and Kim Ballantyne of Gorham. Ballantyne and family members could not be reached for comment this week. No one contacted at Bryant University responded to email and telephone messages by the American Journal’s deadline Wednesday.
A 2010 Gorham High School graduate, Ballantyne was a sports standout in field hockey, basketball, and track and field. She is currently playing field hockey for Bryant University.
Ronald K. Machtley, president of Bryant University, in his remarks to the incoming freshmen class in September, lauded Ballantyne, according to a story posted on the university’s website. The story said Ballantyne in late July was “stabbed fighting back against an attacker in South Boston.”
A Boston TV station reported that Ballantyne kicked the knife from the attacker’s hands.
According to a Boston Police Department report, Ballantyne’s description of the attacker led to the arrest within a short time of a suspect, Edwin Alemany of Boston, who was then 28.
“He allegedly stabbed her repeatedly in the torso, neck, face and neck but fled when she began to scream,” a district attorney press statement on Aug. 14 said after an arraignment.
Alemany was charged with armed assault with intent to murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, according to the district attorney’s office.
Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office, said this week that a court date has been set for Alemany on Wednesday, Nov. 13, in South Boston District Court. Wark said that Alemany is being held at the Nashua Street Jail in Boston.
Alemany is accused of three, separate attacks in a 24-hour period.
Besides charges stemming from the attack on Ballantyne, Alemany also faces charges as a suspect in a non-fatal attack on another woman on July 23.
Alemany has also been charged with one count of murder in the death of Amy Lord, 24, who had been abducted from her South Boston home. The district attorney’s office said Lord had been “beaten, strangled and stabbed.” Lord’s body was found on July 23 just hours before Ballantyne was attacked.
Ten years ago, Ballantyne survived another harrowing experience. In 2003, as a fifth-grader, she suffered a serious injury at Gorham’s Narragansett School when a basketball backboard fell, striking her head and knocking her to the floor. She was hospitalized for three weeks, according to an American Journal news article.
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