Finding strength through pain

For one local woman, the nearly 10 years of sexual abuse and mental torment that she suffered at the hands of a Wood County man inspired her to come forward with her story and encourage those to come forward with theirs. The local woman came forward to share her story with the Register but wanted to remain anonymous. She will be referred to in this story as Audrey, which is not her real name. Kiel D. Lorenzen Provided photo/OHIO DEPARTMENT OF REHABILITATION AND CORRECTION Kiel D. Lorenzen, 39, an inmate at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient, Ohio, was sentenced to 26 years in prison in 2021 for his crimes against her. Audrey, who suffered long-term physical and emotional abuse, finally reported her victimization in 2020 as a way to finally heal from everything that she had buried inside due to him "taking a portion of her childhood away." "It's really important for people to realize that (although) you never think this can happen to you, it's very real. It can be your neighbor or a family friend," Audrey said. The beginning of a nightmare To best understand Audrey's story, one must circle back to 2011 — when she, like so many others, made the simple mistake of texting or calling the wrong number. At this time, she was 14. She explained that her parents had taken her phone away, which prompted Audrey to purchase a Tracfone — a prepaid phone one can buy at a retail store — to remain in contact with her friends at school. Audrey, who received one of her friend's numbers at school, decided to text her friend later in the week but accidentally texted the wrong number. "When I ended up texting this person, he had his friend, Kiel Lorenzen, text me," Audrey said. She later found out that the number she texted belonged to an older brother or a cousin of someone she went to school with. After conversing with Lorenzen over text for some time, the person she accidentally texted contacted her and informed her that Kiel was 27 years old. Audrey thought Kiel was between 18 and 20 years old due to the conversations they had up until that point. Audrey described Kiel as being very nice at the time, but she also recalled that the conversations between them turned sexual very quickly. "At this time, I didn't have social media as I grew up in a very religious household," Audrey said. "So when the conversation took a turn, I didn't really know how to react as I didn't know about any of that stuff." At this point, both Audrey and Kiel had been communicating back and forth for a few months but had yet to meet each other in person — even though he insisted on visiting her numerous times. Audrey stated that Kiel often stood outside her window. Seeing this made her wary of letting him in until she met him in a public setting. Eventually, she felt ready to meet the person she had been talking to for months. When the abuse began Sometime in the winter of that year, Audrey, who was still 14, accompanied her and her brother's friends to the Franklin Park Mall in Toledo. She explained that, once at the mall, the two went their separate ways, and she went to meet Lorenzen inside of Macy's. "I was very shy, and he was more like, I don't want to say pushy, but more outgoing," Audrey said. "You can tell he was trying to get me to open up more." Shortly after Audrey met Lorenzen at the mall, the abuse against her began. She said she was convinced they were in a romantic relationship despite it never being explicitly said because he repeatedly came to her house on multiple occasions and made her give in to his demands. Audrey said that the same situation would happen over and over. Lorenzen would begin coming to her house on multiple occasions without any of her family and friends knowing, and he would sometimes supply alcohol. There were also instances where once Audrey was able to drive, she would then often visit his apartment. Even when she didn't express interest in participating, he would somehow always guilt her into giving in. "He would just come over when he wanted to have sex," Audrey said. "I never feared him hitting me, but it got to the point when I started pushing him away, he would become possessive." Audrey said that it got to the point where she was paranoid and would often check under her bed and in her closet. He would frequently come to her house unannounced, standing outside her window, peeking in through a gap in the curtain. Up until this point, Audrey recalls that he was allowed to have girlfriends and sleep with other people, but she wasn't allowed to do the same. Audrey said things began to take a turn for the worse when she was about to start her junior year in high school and began talking to guys her age. Around that time, they agreed not to talk to each other anymore, and she eventually started dating a guy at her school, but Lorenzen was not happy about it, she said. That arrangement didn't last very long. As Audrey describes, there were various instances in which Lorenzen would sabotage her relationships by contacting her then-boyfriends directly and spreading false information about her. Audrey said that one incident in particular came to mind: She had friends over one weekend while her parents were away. Lorenzen admitted to her shortly after the party that he had snuck into the house and "stole her phone to search" along with "watching her sleep with her boyfriend." Audrey continued to remain in contact with Lorezen mainly due to his unpredictability. She said that he often threatened to reveal the explicit photos that he took of her while she was unconscious to her parents and church whenever she tried to break contact with him. Taking her power back Due to years of Lorenzen sabotaging her relationships with friends and family, Audrey began to have enough. But for many years, due to the constant threats and manipulation, she developed an eating disorder and lost motivation for activities she used to enjoy. "In terms of the sex, I thought I wanted it, I thought I loved him, and I thought this is what a relationship is like," Audrey said. Audrey said that she largely credits her friends and her boyfriend at the time for giving her the courage to come forward with her story and pursue justice. "It wasn't until I was talking with my friends about my relationship with Kiel and about everything he had done to me that I realized it was wrong," Audrey said. "They urged me to go counseling as a way to work through my trauma." Now in her 20s, Audrey began going to counseling. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all of her visits were virtual. As part of one of Audrey's counseling sessions, she was encouraged to let her parents know about the abuse and begin pursuing legal action. With this advice in mind, Audrey wrote a six-page letter to her parents explaining everything that had happened to her. With her therapist's guidance, she arranged a joint therapy session with her parents to discuss things with them. Audrey first went to a local police department, but it didn't pan out because they said there wasn't much they could do. Following the joint counseling session with her parents, Audrey said her dad called a court advocate in Wood County for guidance, where Lorenzen lived at the time. Around this time, Audrey maintained contact with Lorenzen to avoid suspicion as she gathered evidence against him. Lorenzen would threaten to release his photos of her, but she recalled him saying once over text that he had deleted them. "He sent me a video once he got home of him on his computer, and he was scrolling through all the photos that he had of me," Audrey said. "I guess he downloaded them from his phone onto his laptop." To avoid raising suspicion, she tried her best to act normally. She and her parents called Wood County to report their findings. Audrey was then referred to another police department. Based on what was being presented, officers wanted to conduct a sting operation — but because it could raise suspicion, they decided against it. "That night, (the police) asked to meet with us and went over everything," Audrey said. "The next day, they did a search warrant and got everything." The prosecution Audrey said that although she was relieved that he was finally behind bars, there was a part of her that was concerned that if he got out, he would try to harm her as he did own guns. "After receiving a call from his neighbor the day after he got arrested, I went to the courthouse to get a restraining order on him due to finding out that Lorenzen had his neighbor call me," Audrey said. Lorenzen had no trial, and Audrey never saw him in court. She didn't want to see him and strictly worked with the cops to help make their case against him. Initially, she mainly worked with a detective but eventually worked with Ottawa County prosecutor James VanEerten and a court advocate. Lorenzen, who initially faced more than 30 felony counts relating to his actions involving Audrey, reached a deal to plead guilty to two counts of sexual battery and two counts of pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor. He was sentenced in October 2021 to 26 years in prison and will have sex offender registration requirements upon his release. According to his Ohio prison inmate page, his expected release date is in June 2047. "After Ottawa County Common Pleas Court Judge Bruce Winters sentenced Lorenzen, the court advocate contacted my parents, who were informed that we could also pursue Lorenzen civilly," Audrey said. Audrey's mom contacted the Murray & Murray law firm in Sandusky, and that's when Audrey said that she and her parents met Charles Murray. "You could tell he went out of his way to make us feel comfortable," Audrey said. "I like art and painting, and he showed me around the paintings that he had." A new chapter Murray presented the civil case to Wood County Common Pleas Court Judge Mary "Molly" Mack in January 2024. After hearing the findings presented, Judge Mack ruled that Lorenzen would have to pay Audrey $35 million in compensatory and punitive damages. Some of the findings listed in the civil case include: • In 2022, Audrey had to undergo a hysterectomy due to years of traumatic sexual abuse. • After Audrey underwent an extensive psychiatric assessment, a doctor diagnosed Audrey with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, bulima nervosa, severe recurring major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. Advice for others In regards to how Audrey felt when Lorenzen was finally sentenced, she said that part of her thought that she had done something wrong. "He had manipulated me so much to where I felt I was doing something wrong," Audrey said. "For me, the biggest relief was when someone was like, 'This is not right,' and they were going to do something about this." Audrey said that people in a similar situation as her should not be afraid to seek help, which can begin with talking to a friend or someone like a counselor or medical professional. "The most validating thing was talking to a complete stranger that had nothing to do with anything and they were a professional," she said. "It was in the comfort of my own home. I could say how I was feeling and get their input." People, including herself, might feel guilt about speaking about their abuser — because they might have been someone that they cared for at one point. "Sometimes your judgment is clouded by (those) feelings," Audrey said. But speaking up is necessary to achieve the best possible outcome in a terrible situation. "I feel like talking to someone was the first step in getting that momentum going of everything that happened," she said.