Where do you go when youre 5 and already thinking about handcuffs? She and I speak fairly often. He also realized police departments often did not communicate. Most had described a white man with green or hazel eyes, about 6 feet tall, weighing about 200 pounds. Though the degraded DNA lifted from the crime scenes could not definitively match OLearys DNA, it could show that a male from his family line had most likely committed the crime. Afterward, he ordered her to brush her teeth and wash herself in the shower. Her foster family was going to adopt her. Denver-area publicationWestword reported. He described the feeling after raping one elderly victim. He left the room, and walked to the front door, and he was gone. It was a young woman far younger than the Colorado victims, perhaps a teenager. He asked if there was really a rapist running around the neighborhood that the police should be looking for. The Army veteran was stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, near Tacoma, Washington, between November 2006 and September 2009, when he targeted Marie in Lynnwood, Washington, in August. These guidelines, available to all police departments, detailed common missteps. Roll back over, he told her and she did, and then he raped her, and while he raped her he ran his gloved hands over her. She was always nice to talk to.. Thundershowers had soaked the area before the attack. Despite that, she tried to enjoy life and liked school, hiking, photography, and going to the beach with friends. I mean, I get shiver bumps thinking about it, just even now, Hendershot said. 7: Caught in a Bad Romance, Brandon Sklenar is the Baddest Dutton of Them All, The 'Outer Banks' S3 Finale Is Intense as Hell. Officials for Cocoon House declined to comment on the settlement. Rittgarn asked. So he took steps to avoid leaving any traces of genetic material. A week later, Galbraith, Hendershot and Aurora Detective Scott Burgess gathered around a conference table in the Westminster Police Department. Or that he looked so similar. On the form she filled in her name, address and Social Security number, and then she wrote, in part: I was talking to Jordan on the phone that night about his day and just about anything. They matched the footprints in the snow outside her victims apartment in Golden. Shannon saw an account of the attack on the television news and was taken aback. She was detached, emotionally detached from what she was saying, Cunningham said on the show, adding she thought she was simply seeking attention. We have him.. [1], After seven months of email and phone communication with Marie's lawyer, Marie agreed to speak to Armstrong. He was Marc OLeary. She remembers calling the Lynnwood detectives twice and being told they didnt believe Maries account. Marie was born in Heidelberg . Galbraith listened to the woman with a sense of alarm. The average law enforcement agency in America is about 13 percent female. Galbraith pulled him to the side and patted him down. In 2008, an 18-year-old Marie, fresh out of foster care, reported that she'd been raped by a man who entered her apartment in Lynnwood, Washington while she was sleeping. One Sexual Assault Survivor's Quest To End The Shocking Backlog Of Untested Rape Kits. Marie figures her happiest years were when she was 16 and 17, and the happiest day may have been one she spent with her best friend, another high school student who was teaching Marie the fine points of camerawork. Neither Mason nor Rittgarn were disciplined. Galbraith flashed a quick thumbs up. But she remembers being kind of shocked to learn that they had charged Marie. The judge signed it at 10 p.m. on Saturday. He got a hit. It was a picture of the womans learners permit, placed on her chest. Because she craved normalcy, she would bury the hurt. She also landed her first job, offering food samples to customers at Costco. She then found the Kirkland victims name on OLearys computer, attached to an encrypted file. She crackled energy. "I just got thisreally weird feeling. The five other attacks one in Washington, four in Colorado all came after the attack on Marie. However, at the age of 18, Marie's foster mum, Peggy Cunningham, enlisted her in a program called Project Ladder, which allowed Marie to move into her own one bed flat, help her get a job and become self-sufficient. How would she identify her? She wanted to take a lie detector test. When the detectives returned, they saw that Maries new statement described the rape as a dream, not a lie. The analysis of the touch DNA produced mixed results. [23][24][3], Armstrong and Miller adapted their article and additional research into a 304-page book, A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America. Her birthplace is Lynnwood, Washington, USA, and she is 32 years old. He said nothing about doubting Maries story, according to Masons written summary. And much like the detectives, who hunted the rapist separately before joining forces, Miller and Armstrong initially reported the story on their own before collaborating. She couldnt bring herself to meet with the police again and say anything more. She claims the officers interrogated her and put words in her mouth.. Marie ended up suing the city of. In hindsight, it was my job to get to the bottom of it and I didnt.. In early October, less than two months after Marie was charged with false reporting, a 63-year-old woman reported being raped inside her condominium in Kirkland, east of Seattle. It freaked me out. She just listened, then hung up. . I basically had 20 minutes to pack my stuff and go.. The officer filed a brief report on the vehicle. They received thousands of pages of documents, including investigative reports, case reviews, crime scene photographs and footage of surveillance and O'Leary after his arrest. She quit her Costco job and considered suicide. "An Unbelievable Story of Rape" is a 2015 article about a series of rapes in the American states of Washington and Colorado that occurred between 2008 and 2011, and the subsequent police investigations. Police. I cant imagine ANY justification for making these statements., Jensen also ordered an internal review, which was similarly damning. It described the officers' behaviour as "bullying" and highlighted threats of jail and housing assistance removal as "coercive, cruel, and unbelievably unprofessional." They talked about being tied up. Hendershot met her at a Dennys restaurant. And she is resilient. In August, he learned of the case of Marie and contacted her lawyer, discovering that Ken Armstrong of The Marshall Project was already working on a similar story. I didnt want this time to be like that, Marie said of her attack on This American Life, comparing it to her first rape. He was 32 years old and 220 pounds. She came right away. Juries were hesitant to throw someone in prison when it was one persons word against anothers. Those investigations often boiled down to an issue of consent. And then, finally, in January 2011 came the attack on the 26-year-old in Golden, about 15 miles southwest of Westminster. Their initial attempts to identify the attacker faltered. Galbraith was younger. The next day, when Shannon saw Marie at her apartment, her doubts intensified. She has left the state, although she wants her new location to remain secret. But he did say Marie had told him: When she tried calling him that morning, she had used her toes, because she was tied up. OLeary pleaded guilty to 28 counts of rape and associated felonies in Colorado. Marie and Shannon would walk in the woods, or take out the boat, then, at days end, crash in Shannons home. [1][2], The article won the 2015 George Polk Award for Justice Reporting, presented by Long Island University, and the 2016 Al Nakkula Award for Police Reporting, awarded by the University of Colorado Boulder and Denver Press Club. Before he left, he showed the student how he broke in through a sliding glass door. For me it seems like people read me differently than I see myself, Marie said in the written piece about her struggle. You know? I didnt want them to waste their resources on something that might be, you know, this personal drama going on.. The analyst shot Hendershot a message, You need to come to talk to me right now.. The marks at the two crime scenes were the same. A damning report found the police handling of the case "nothing short of the victim being coerced into admitting that she lied about the rape," the ProPublica and Marshall Project article said. But she didnt know if it was important. Hendershot asked for a comparison. Labs were taken for hepatitis, chlamydia, HIV. I guess you wont leave your windows open in the future, the man told the woman, who had recently been widowed. ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Launched the year before, the program was designed to help young adults who had grown up in foster care transition to living on their own. They were both cops, after all. When I went to sleep I dreamed that someone broke in and raped me. In this written statement, she described calling him while still tied up. He possessed a mask, gun, women's underwear and other identifying evidence. Miller had discovered that a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) database to identify serial murderers and rapists was mostly unused in the cases of rape, as most police departments fail to upload sexual assault reports. The first victim, an 18-year-old woman known as Marie, reported to Sergeant Jeffrey Mason and Jerry Rittgarn that she had been raped at her home in Lynnwood, Washington. OLeary, in addition to assaulting D.M., also admitted he raped a 63-year-old Kirkland woman. The article was later adapted into the Netflix series Unbelievable (2019), which has received critical acclaim. Interviewed in the same room where he had confronted Marie seven years before, he said: It wasnt her job to try to convince me. She's based (and born and raised) in Brooklyn, New York. They also appeared similar to prints from a pair of Under Armour gloves that a Lakewood investigator, on a hunch, had discovered at a Dicks Sporting Goods. Jeffrey Mason and Jerry Rittgarn, found the victim, Marie, on a couch, in a blanket, crying off and on. ", Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters, Kaitlyn Dever as Marie in "Unbelievable. The hour-long episode features Ira Glass, Ken Armstrong and Robyn Semien and includes interviews with Marie, Mason and two of Marie's foster parents. [9], Armstrong's editor Joe Sexton and Miller's editor Bill Keller had worked together at The New York Times. Theyd be out there searching for this person who had done this to me.. Recognizing the jeopardy she was in, she said she wanted a lawyer. I was just too scared, Marie says. A fellow detective sat through more than 12 hours of blurry footage. It turned up only bad leads. We could laugh at each other and make fun. In the predawn hours, a white Mazda pickup truck appeared 10 times. It was just nice to be on my own and not have all the rules that I had had being in foster care, Marie says. They dont appreciate having their time wasted. The two bonded naturally. Whats more, he would recommend that Project Ladder pull her housing assistance. He was just being neat and orderly, the way he was with everything. We still have to make that definitive identification, Hendershot said. The initial detectives investigating the case questioned inconsistencies in her story, and her credibility was also called into question by her foster parent and an ex-boyfriend. We would always hug and she would look you right in the eye. In the bedroom, Marie seemed casual, with nothing to suggest that something horrible had happened there. Carefully, she compared OLearys white Mazda to the surveillance tape. She had been alone in her apartment the previous evening. This didnt square with what Marie had previously told Mason. What happened next serves as a harrowing. A K-9 officer was outside, his dog trying to pick up a scent. Rittgarn, who left the Lynnwood Police Department before OLearys arrest, declined to be interviewed for this story. It was dark outside when she finished. This content is imported from youTube. Jennifer Gentile Long, CEO of AEquitas: The Prosecutors' Resource on Violence Against Women, commented that the article presented an "extraordinary learning opportunity for both criminal justice professionals and ordinary citizens alike". Social scientists examining police records in detail and using methodologically rigorous standards cite similar, single-digit rates. [27], The Netflix miniseries Unbelievable is an eight-part adaptation of "An Unbelievable Story of Rape", also drawing from "An Anatomy of Doubt" and A False Report. Dont scream. Over the next four hours, he raped her repeatedly. Marie liked dogs. Marie Theresa Arzer, age 77, of Redmond, Washington passed away on Saturday, February 11, 2023. "This was about a sexual assault that happened in 2008, and [Miller] and I are both working on this story seven years later. Illustrations by Wesley Allsbrook. They wondered whether it contained photos of his victims. It was so organized, we were like, Oh, thank God.. A search warrant led to the arrest of O'Leary. However, when the lawsuit was filed in June, the programs CEO, Cassie Franklin, issued a statement saying Our hearts go out to D.M. Like kids most everywhere, Marie wanted to fit in. Marie agreed to speak to Armstrong after six months of communication. A half-dozen officers and technicians were now at work. Despite all she had been through, Mariesaid she does not regret reporting the rape. So did Galbraith. He was hired by Lynnwood in 2003, and served on a narcotics task force. She broke three ribs and punctured a lung in the 7-foot fall to the ground, but managed to escape. Gina Marie Maki (Marinucci), age 46, passed away peacefully and surrounded by the love of her family on Saturday, February 18, 2023 at EvergreenHealth Hospice Center in Kirkland, Washington from Stage IV colon cancer. Gabrielle Bruney is a writer and editor for Esquire, where she focuses on politics and culture. In doing this, the police ignored the fact that research shows that victims of trauma struggle to remember specific details about their experiences. Rittgarn told Marie that her story and the evidence didnt match. She was accompanied by her foster mother, Peggy Cunningham, and by Wayne Nash, her case manager with Project Ladder. Among the items Colorado detectives found in OLearys possession were photographs of D.M. She would move a hundred miles an hour in one direction, a colleague said. She recalled the camera that the attacker had used to take photos. It didnt sound real to me. According to a later report, the bullying and . For Mason, his decision to file the citation required no complicated calculus. [34] The program was nominated for numerous awards, including four nominations each at the Golden Globe Awards and the Critics' Choice Television Awards, with one win at the latter. But I dont think that thats the right standpoint. Mason. You can also read more about how ProPublica and The Marshall Project reported this story. So many kids, institutionalized, wound up on drugs or in jail. It's that article, "An Unbelievable Story of Rape," that serves as the source material for Netflix's drama co-created by Oscar-nominated Eric Brockovich screenwriter Susannah Grant, executive produced by Katie Couric, and featuring Emmy award-winning actors Toni Collette and Merritt Wever. She had spoken to a friend on the phone for several hours early Aug. 11, 2008, finally going to bed around 5:30 a.m. She said she left the sliding-glass patio door ajar. Through friends, Marie met Jordan Schweitzer, a high school student working at a McDonalds. Golden and Westminster were middle class bedroom towns wedged between Denvers downtown skyscrapers and the looming Rockies. Or even that Michael and Marc had worked together. Marie settled in. Nobody collects such data. As for threatening jail and a possible withdrawal of housing assistance if Marie failed a polygraph: These statements are coercive, cruel, and unbelievably unprofessional, Rinta wrote. I was preparing for a baby. Marie thats her middle name, Marie didnt say anything. Police technicians were swarming the apartment. Tall, winter-bare trees towered above the roof. Later that day a meeting was called at the housing complex, with all of Maries peers gathered in a circle. Neither Peggy nor Shannon abandoned her, but things werent the same. It was such a rush. Afterward, the paperwork went to a small law firm that Lynnwood had hired to prosecute misdemeanors. It fell to Shannon to break the news. At a little before sunrise, he heard the phone conversation end. Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. But on the first day, a support counselor came to the school and told Marie the family had lost its foster care license. ", The reporters adapted the story for audio for an episode of This American Life and wrote a book about the case called, A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America. How am I going to find him? Galbraith often volunteered to take rape cases. After looking through the images, she found an answer. The unbelievable story of how a rape victim in Lynnwood, Washington was charged with falsely reporting the crime and how two female detectives, who believed her, teamed up to find the serial rapist responsible: Marc Patrick O'Leary. I have had a lot of stressful things going on and I wanted to hang out with someone and no one was able to so I made up this story and didnt expect it to go as far as it did. Could the detectives connect OLearys Mazda with the blurry image of the white Mazda in the surveillance footage from Golden? She is subsequently charged with a gross misdemeanor for false reporting. It was like Id just eaten Thanksgiving dinner, he said. Someone else is going to get hurt, Galbraith worried to herself. The three went to the Lynnwood police station, where the detectives escorted Marie to a conference room. And Zoloft is an adult drug I was on that at 8.. Both laces had come from Maries black tennis shoes, in the living room. D.M. She is strong. We are happy to reach this resolution, he said. An OLeary man was responsible. White man, gray sweater. He was rubbing his head and literally looked like he was ashamed about what they had done. He told Marie he was sorry deeply sorry, Marie says. September 13, 2019. She let it go and hung up, thinking, Okay, I hope that works out for you guys.. You might be surprised", "Golden Globes: Full List of Nominations", "Critics' Choice Awards 2020: Fleabag, Watchmen, When They See Us, Unbelievable Among TV Nominees", "Critics' Choice Awards: 'Once Upon A Time In Hollywood' Wins Best Picture, Netflix And HBO Among Top Honorees Full Winners List", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=An_Unbelievable_Story_of_Rape&oldid=1113526009, This page was last edited on 1 October 2022, at 22:55. I had a crib and they gave me a 16-year-old, Peggy says, with a laugh. Hendershot seized on them. But then Galbraith stumbled across an image of a woman she didnt recognize. A collaboration between The Marshall Project and ProPublica, it was published on both websites on December 16, 2015. Without reading Marie her rights you have the right to an attorney, you have the right to remain silent the detectives asked Marie to write out the true story, admitting she had lied, admitting, in effect, that she had committed a crime. 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