PORT ORCHARD, Wash. — Jessi Foster was afraid David Kalac would kill her.
Now that he's been arrested for killing Amber Coplin, she realizes just how lucky she is.
"I'm thankful to be alive. That could have been me," Foster told KIRO-7's Alison Grande on Monday.
Foster dated David Kalac for five months. After she broke up with him, she said he knocked her to the ground and threatened to kill her.
When she ran outside, she said he chased her with a knife. The incident happened at the house they shared in Bremerton.
Kalac was arrested and later pleaded guilty to felony harassment - threats to kill.
Kalac spent three months in jail. When he got out, Foster made sure she had a restraining order.
When Foster found out Kalac was accused of killing his next girlfriend, Amber Coplin, she was devastated.
"I felt sick, physically. I'm still trying to grasp it," said Foster.
Foster said Kalac drank too much and would get very angry. She said he spent a lot of time online on social media sites like 4Chan and liked posts about skulls and death.
Investigators said Kalac posted pictures of Amber Coplin's body after the murder.
Foster stumbled across the pictures when she was looking for information about Kalac's arrest.
"I think he has a hatred towards women and that's his way of embarrassing her, even after she's dead in a sick twisted way," said Foster. “I feel for her. I can't imagine what it was like to be tortured like that."
Foster never met Coplin, but she still felt compelled to attend a vigil for her last Saturday.
"I cried the whole time," said Foster.
Foster admittedly questions her choice of men.
Foster's last boyfriend shot and killed Trooper Tony Radulescu in Kitsap County during a traffic stop in 2012.
Josh Blake had Foster help him after the murder.
Blake shot and killed himself before he could be arrested. Foster pleaded guilty to rendering criminal assistance and was sentenced to six months in jail.
Foster doesn’t plan to attend Kalac’s murder trial.
She said she doesn’t want to be in the same room with him.
When asked about punishment, Foster said, “I don’t think he deserves to even be here. Maybe the death penalty would serve him good.”