Mary Kary Beckman Sues Match.com For $10M After Online Dater, Wade Ridley, Tried To Kill Her

According to Fox 4, Beckman, 50, met 53-year-old Ridley in September 2010 through Match.com. The couple dated briefly, but Beckman ended the relationship in just eight days. Four months later, Beckman said Ridley had broken into her home and hid in her garage until she returned home. Court documents said Ridley "brutally stabbed [Beckman] 10 times with a knife about her head, face and upper body, until the overwhelming force he applied to the stabbing caused the knife to break.” Then he "stomped and kicked" Beckman in the head until she "stopped making the gurgling noise.”

Beckman was found by a neighbor shortly after the attack and was rushed to the hospital, ABC reported.

Ridley, who had no previous criminal record, was eventually arrested and told police he “wanted to kill” Beckman for breaking up with him. He also confessed to killing another woman named Ann Simenson, whom he also met on Match.com. An arrest report said Ridley wanted to kill both of the women because they had “jilted” him.

However, Ridley committed suicide while in jail serving a 70-year sentence for killing Simenson but before he was tried for attacking Beckman, Fox 4 reported.

Beckman said Match.com does not warn its users about risks in online dating and is suing the online dating site for negligence, negligent misrepresentation, deceptive trade, failure to warn and negligent infliction of emotional distress, Time reported. However, in Match.com’s terms of use, the site says it “does not conduct criminal background checks on its members” nor should it be held “liable for any damages whatsoever.”

Still, Beckman said the site led her believe she could have a “stable and loving relationship with another member” rather than "an individual whose intentions are not to find a mate, but to find victims to kill or rape.”

Her attorney, Marc Saggese, agreed and said Match.com leads “women and men into a false sense of security.” Both he and Beckman want Match.com to raise awareness about the importance of safe online dating, though the site currently makes its users agree to read their "Dating Safety Tips" guide.

“They don’t say one in five are part of an attempted murder or one in five are killed,” Beckman told Fox 4. “They don’t tell you people are missing.”

Beckman said she had to undergo several surgeries to repair her jaw, eyesight, hearing and skull after being stomped on by Ridley. She is seeking $346,000 in economic damages, $5.4 million in noneconomic damages and $4.1 million in punitive damages in the lawsuit against the online dating site.

Match.com, however, said in a statement Beckman’s lawsuit is “absurd” and has all of the appropriate terms of use displayed on its site.

"What happened to Mary Kay Beckman is horrible, but this lawsuit is absurd," spokesperson Eva Ross said in a statement. "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."