A potentially perfect match almost cost Mary Kay Beckman her life.
FOX 5 KVVU reports that Beckman, of Las Vegas, is suing Match.com for $10 million, alleging that the dating website doesn’t do enough to keep violent offenders off its site after she met a man who attempted to kill her.
"He broke into my garage," Beckman told the station. "When the police arrested him, he said he wasn't there to hurt me. He was there to kill me. His intent was to kill me that night."
Beckman said she had been using Match.com for two months when she met Wade Ridley in September 2010. After just eight days, Beckman ended the relationship, causing Ridley to turn violent. Later, in 2011, Ridley stabbed her 10 times with a butcher knife and stomped on her head when the knife broke.
The 50-year-old real estate agent and mother of two said the attack left her hospitalized for months. She endured three head surgeries and a seizure. While she was in the hospital, Beckman said Ridley killed an Arizona woman he met on the same website.
"I struggled a lot thinking why did she die and why did I live," said Beckman, adding that Ridley came looking for her but authorities arrested him. Ridley later committed suicide in jail.
Beckman, meanwhile, is now pushing for a disclaimer on Match.com similar warnings on cigarettes.
"They don't say one in five are part of an attempted murder or one in five are killed," said Beckman. "They don't tell you people are missing."
In a statement, Match.com characterized Beckman’s statement as “absurd.”
“The many millions of people who have found love on Match.com and other online dating sites know how fulfilling it is,” the statement read. “And while that doesn't make what happened in this case any less awful, this is about a sick, twisted individual with no prior criminal record, not an entire community of men and women looking to meet each other."
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