He would learn her date of birth and license plate number. The real woman known as Marie in the original articleMarie is her middle namereported her rape to Lynnwood, Washington police on August 11, 2008. He said he felt stupid, that it had looked better in his head. He said he believed she had made the story up a spur-of-the-moment thing, not something planned out. OLeary had been stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord from November 2006 through September 2009, when he moved to Colorado, according to prosecutors in King and Snohomish counties. I didnt want it to get back to Marie, Peggy says. In 2008, Marie's case was one of four labeled unfounded by the Lynnwood police, according to . In 2015, an article co-authored by ProPublica and The Marshall Project about Marie's case gripped the nation and finally afforded Marie some semblance of justice. In the predawn hours, a white Mazda pickup truck appeared 10 times. He was sentenced to 327 and a halfyears in prison. He ordered the women to shower. Hendershot was more experienced. 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. At Elle Marie Hair Studio, we believe your experience should be empowering and transformative. When you become a foster parent, youre open to that, Shannon says. The treads matched the footprints in the snow in Golden and outside the window in Lakewood. Youre under arrest for burglary and sexual assault which occurred in the City of Golden on January 5, 2011, she told him. [27][28] Mason was interviewed for the book, but Rittgarn refused to speak to the authors without being paid. How would she identify her? Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. He would watch her watching TV. awoke in her Lynnwood apartment to find a man holding a kitchen knife. Just after noon, the agents saw a woman and a man who looked like OLeary leave. The article was written by Ken Armstrong and T. Christian Miller. Her foster family was going to adopt her. .css-gk9meg{display:block;font-family:Lausanne,Arial,sans-serif;font-weight:normal;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;padding-top:0.25rem;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-gk9meg:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.15;margin-bottom:0.25rem;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0.625rem;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 73.75rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.2;}}Celebrities Who Voice Cartoon Characters, 'The Mandalorian' Season 3 is About to Commence, The Underworld Crossover of the Century Is Coming. [15] Writing for the alternative Wisconsin newspaper Isthmus, Bill Lueders praised the article and compared it to his own reporting about a similar case from 1997 to 2001, where a woman was charged by police after ostensibly making a false report of rape, but was later proven truthful by DNA evidence leading to her rapist's conviction. also reached a settlement with Cocoon House, a private, nonprofit at-risk-youth program where she was living when the assault occurred. Marie thats her middle name, Marie didnt say anything. The eight-part limited series is based on the real-life story of 18-year-old Marie, who, in 2008, reported that she was raped at knifepoint, later recanted her story amid police skepticism, and ended up charged with filing a false report. Self-esteem gave way to self-loathing. Their suspicions were based on comments from three people who said that they doubted her story, according to the suit. Later, she was charged with making a false police reporta crime punishable by up to a year in jail. Then, in 2012, he was given another 62 years after pleading guilty to two rapes in the Washington towns of Lynnwood and Kirkland,KOMO News in Seattle reported. There were few slots, but Marie secured one. The entire series is harrowingly candid portrayal of Marie's story and the horrific injustice she experienced. Afterward, Shannon took Marie for a walk in the woods, and told her, Im so sorry I doubted you. Marie forgave, immediately. He let spill some lessons for law enforcement. The rims would have traces of his DNA. Police found shoe prints in the soft, damp soil outside the womans bedroom. Gina is survived by her parents, Terrance and Jennifer; her husband, Andy; her children, Carter (19), Noah (17) and Chase (13 . More often they were separated. And instead of interviewing Marie as a victim, they began interrogating her as a suspect.". Now, fearful he could become the target of a wrongful accusation, Shannons husband decided it would be best if Marie no longer spent the night. They tailed the pair to a nearby restaurant, and watched them eat. Maybe it was the attacker waiting for the woman to fall asleep? There was just no emotion. He looked like Marc OLeary. 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. [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. Her department was small a little more than 40 officers serving a town of about 20,000. We may earn a commission from these links. A 59-year-old woman told her that she had been asleep in her home when a man jumped on her back. Marie said on an episode of This American Life in an episode devoted to this case entitled Anatomy of Doubt that she was raped as a child, but notedshe didnt talk about it much and pretty much suppressed that it had happened. She married, and in October she and her husband had their second child. There, a 65-year-old woman told police that she had been raped in her apartment by a man with a black scarf wrapped around his face. Unexpectedly, a man came to the door. The attacker had been cunning, attempting to erase any traces of DNA from the scene. He worked in Westminster, some 15 miles to the northeast. The same person was at work. [9][10], Miller wrote the sections about the woman in Colorado, while Armstrong wrote the sections about the investigation in Washington. Marie knew that both had doubted her story, even before the police had. She now wishes she had never shared her doubts with police. [6] The teams decided to collaborate. She was very bubbly and full of energy, but she also had her moments where she could be very intense, Peggy says. The true-crime drama tells the real story of Marie Adler, an 18-year-old girl from Lynnwood, Washington, who was wrongfully charged with a gross misdemeanour in 2008 after police believed that she lied to them about being raped. by T. Christian Miller, ProPublica and Ken Armstrong, The Marshall Project. 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. In 2008, Marie, from Lynnwood, Washington, reported to police an intruder had broken into her home, bound and gagged her, and raped her at knifepoint. He was only 8 the first time he broke into a home. This site is a search engine for cases filed in the municipal, district, superior, and appellate courts of the state of Washington. Around 7 a.m., he stood in her bedroom doorway, holding, at shoulder height, a knife in his left hand. D.M.s lawsuit also named as defendants the agency that runs the program, Cocoon House, and two of its employees, Jana Hamilton and Wayne Nash. Galbraith recounted the days events. [3][9] Armstrong and Miller also interviewed two of Marie's foster parents and her friend, her public defender and civil suit attorney. It had her name. The man threatened her with a butcher knife, gagged her with her underwear, bound her hands with a shoelace from her tennis shoe and raped her. Throughout 2015, he had been reporting on the failure of law enforcement to trace rapists, including the case of Darren Sharper, a football player who raped nine women. Nor should police get lost in stereotypes believing, for example, that an adult victim will be more believable than an adolescent. The woman underwent a special forensic examination to collect more DNA evidence. She clearly remembered one physical detail about him: a dark mark on his left calf the size of an egg. And the Westminster widow had told Hendershot that her attacker wore a white T-shirt during her assault. Could the detectives connect OLearys Mazda with the blurry image of the white Mazda in the surveillance footage from Golden? ", Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion, What Netflix's 'The Spy' Gets Wrong About Eli Cohen, Netflix's 'The Spy': Eli Cohen's Remains Still a Mystery, Kathleen Zellner Explains $100,000 Reward in Steven Avery Case. Sometimes she was placed in foster homes with her siblings. The rules about life, Marie says. Marie said no. Hendershot did not want to be too hasty. The analyst shot Hendershot a message, You need to come to talk to me right now.. After hours of further questioning, Marie wrote that she had been lying. Shed gone through so much already. The victim had described him as a gentleman, Galbraith said. After finally falling asleep, she was awakened by a man with a knife and then tied up, blindfolded, gagged and raped. In hindsight, it was my job to get to the bottom of it and I didnt.. Marie was heavily medicated, although its not clear why. So many kids, institutionalized, wound up on drugs or in jail. The search results can point you to the official or complete court record. After rushing to the apartment that morning, Peggy found Marie on the floor, crying. She and I speak fairly often. They began to collaborate, with Armstrong writing about Marie's story in Washington and Miller writing about the police investigation in Colorado. Between 2008 and 2011, a series of rapes in the suburbs around Seattle and Denver were perpetrated by Marc Patrick O'Leary, an Army veteran who had been stationed near Tacoma. I was mad at God, she says. D.M. Hendershot asked one of her departments crime analysts to scour nearby agencies for similar crimes. Marie was charged with filing a false report and accepted a plea deal under which she had to pay a $500 fine and undergo counseling to avoid jail time. When Detectives Stacy Galbraith and Edna Hendershot found Marc O'Leary (Christopher McCarthy in the show) guilty of raping 27 women, only then did they learn that one of those women was Marie. It was just nice to be on my own and not have all the rules that I had had being in foster care, Marie said, according toProPublica. Dont scream. But then Galbraith stumbled across an image of a woman she didnt recognize. Shed worked more than 100 rape cases in her career. In the kitchen, when Shannon walked in, Marie didnt meet her gaze. She stopped crying. In August 2008, a stranger broke into the apartment of an 18-year-old Lynnwood woman, gagged her, bound her hands with a shoelace and raped her. Galbraith pulled him to the side and patted him down. She was 18 years old, charged with a gross misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail. In December 2011, O'Leary was sentenced to 327.5 years in prison for four incidents in Colorado. and her family. He had previously worked only one or two rape cases. I dont know why I couldnt have done something different. Its too late for that, he replied. From there, her record was expunged and police returned her $500. Celebrate the life of Marie Arzer, leave a kind word or memory and get funeral service information. If you aren't already clued in on Marie's story, read on: The series takes its inspiration from a Pulitzer Prize-winning 2015 ProPublica and The Marshall Project article about a woman who experienced a horrific sexual assault aged 18 but later recanted her story. After looking through the images, she found an answer. Later that month, there was a final surprise. He waited a little longer, letting the silence stretch out, then climbed over the railing and slipped through the unlocked sliding glass door. From a religious point of view, she follows Christianity. He picked up a kitchen timer and set it to let her know when she could get out. I cant imagine ANY justification for making these statements., Jensen also ordered an internal review, which was similarly damning. When the assault occurred later, she found an answer and instead of interviewing Marie as a,. 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