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Woman Says Match.com|Nearly Got Her Killed

LAS VEGAS (CN) - A woman sued Match.com for $10 million, claiming a man she met through the dating website hid in her garage, stabbed her 10 times and kicked her in the head until she "stopped making the gurgling noise."

Mary Kay Beckman sued Match.com LLC in Clark County Court, for negligence, negligent misrepresentation, deceptive trade, failure to warn, and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

She claims the site misled her into believing that a subscription would result in a "stable and loving relationship with another member."

But Match.com failed to warn her of the dangers of meeting "an individual whose intentions are not to find a mate, but to find victims to kill or rape," Beckman says in the complaint.

She did not sue her attacker, Wade Mitchell Ridley. Ridley, a "member" of Match.com, died in prison last year while serving 28 to 70 years for killing an ex-girlfriend in Phoenix, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal.

Beckman says in her complaint that she nearly died because she used Match.com seeking "the type of healthy and loving relationship the website claimed to foster." She signed up at the end of August 2010.

She was matched up with Ridley and they had their first date on Sept. 26, 2010.

They dated for 10 days. When Beckman called it off, she says, Ridley sent her numerous threatening and harassing messages.

On the night of Jan. 21, 2011, Beckman says, Ridley hid in her garage and stabbed her 10 times, "until the overwhelming force he applied to the stabbing caused the knife to break."

Then he stomped and kicked her head until she "stopped making the gurgling noise," according to the complaint.

He ran off and left her for dead. A neighbor called 911, and Beckman was taken to the hospital, she says in the complaint.

She has undergone surgeries to repair her jaw and to preserve her eyesight and hearing, and a third surgery to remove part of her skull, which was replaced with a "synthetic component."

Beckman seeks $346,000 in economic damages, $5.4 million in noneconomic damages, and $4.1 million in punitive damages.

She is represented by Marc A. Saggese.

Match.com defended itself in a statement through DKC Public Relations, Marketing & Government Affairs.

"What happened to Mary Kay Beckman is horrible, but this lawsuit is absurd," Match.com said. "The many millions of people who have found love on Match.com and other online dating sites know how fulfilling it is. 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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