Central Kentucky women speak out about alleged sexual assault in The Bahamas

GARRARD COUNTY, Ky. – What was supposed to be a dream vacation for two central Kentucky mothers turned into a nightmare.

The women allege they were sexually assaulted at a resort in The Bahamas.

They said they were not made aware of a Level 2 travel advisory issued for the country due to crime. Now they said they’re sharing their traumatic story to make others aware of the possible dangers when traveling.

“It was like a dream vacation until it wasn’t. Then it’s like a nightmare we can’t wake up from,” Dongayla Dobson said.

Lifelong friends Dobson and Amber Shearer booked a Carnival Cruise to The Bahamas. They left on Thursday last week, but it was when they docked in Freeport on Sunday that the trip took a horrific turn.

“We were fine up until we weren’t,” Shearer said.

The friends say they were each offered two drinks by staff at a local resort. They say they had their first drink, then a few sips of the second. Shearer says she woke with a man on top of her.

“I ran, I was screaming for Dongayla … ” Shearer said. “I was like, ‘Dongayla, we’ve got to go get help.'”

Both women documented bruising down their lower bodies. Bahamian police were called to the scene, but they say they couldn’t get any tests or proper medical care until they were back on the Carnival Cruise Ship.

“We were treated as if we were nothing,” Shearer said.

Shearer and Dobson say their drug tests show positive results for many substances, such as benzos. They say their rape kids came back positive, and now they’re working with American law enforcement and their own legal teams.

The women allege two men from the resort sexually assaulted them.

“We thought we were being safe. We thought we were doing all the right things,” Dobson said.

They’re back home and both taking thousands of dollars worth of prescribed medication, including HIV prevention. Now they are sharing their traumatic story to try and stop this from happening to anyone else.

“These crimes, they don’t just affect the women like Dongayla and I, that are raped. They affect everybody that loves us because we can’t be loved the same after,” Shearer said.