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Man Slashes Teenage Clerk's Throat

Atchison Woman Recovering At Hospital

POSTED: 10:13 am CDT June 20, 2008

A woman was in the intensive care unit of a hospital Friday after a man attacked her inside a Stop-N-Go gas station in Winthrop, Mo.

Kim Dejonge, 19, of nearby Atchison, Kan., was stabbed seven times, and her throat was slashed.

She was in critical but stable condition but hadn't yet been able to speak to her family because her vocal cords were cut.

Police arrested Sean Edward Cave, 38, at a home in Atchison, his hometown.

Dejonge's co-workers at the gas station where she started working last year were in disbelief about what happened.

"Kim and I are real good friends, and we share video games, and it was just a terrible shock," said Di Reedy, a co-worker.

Cave walked into the gas station at about 8 p.m. Thursday, attacked Dejonge and then left the store with cash and a computer, police said.

"I've been told that a customer found her and called 911 and they got a tag number, which is how they were able to catch him so fast, and then a fellow, new employee came in and stayed with Kim until the ambulances got there," Reedy said.

Dejonge was flown to a hospital.

Before police arrested Cave in Atchison, Kan., he cut his arm and had to be treated at a hospital, they said.

Buchanan County prosecutors charged Cave with first-degree robbery, first-degree assault and armed criminal action. He was being held on $100,000 bond.

Dejonge celebrates her 20th birthday next week, her family said.

Customers stopped by the convenience store Friday, saying they were always greeted by her smile.

"It just tears me up, you know. It really does," said Dawn Warden, a customer. "If I could get up there to see her today, I would. We cried this morning. It's a bad deal."

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