He held a knife. 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 think its listen to your victim. Golden police obtained a surveillance tape showing the entrance to the apartment complex where Galbraiths victim had been attacked. Rarely do misdemeanors draw notice. Galbraith flashed a quick thumbs up. The article alternates between two true stories of events occurring between August 2008 and June 2012. They wondered whether it contained photos of his victims. Neither Mason nor Rittgarn were disciplined. View Leonard Hansen results in Lynnwood, WA including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. If this could affect you, please read with caution. Afterward, he ordered her to brush her teeth and wash herself in the shower. But which one? Beth Dubber / Netflix / Klara Auerbach / The Atlantic. Marie said no. [25][26] The book expands upon details of the case like O'Leary's perspective and subjects such as victim blaming and social media harassment. She has left the state, although she wants her new location to remain secret. He knew to avoid leaving his DNA at the scene. Among the items Colorado detectives found in OLearys possession were photographs of D.M. Marie said she didnt know of any discrepancies. One sample was collected from the kitchen timer in Westminster. He had since broken into her place twice, both times through that same glass door. The report detailed how a 46-year-old artist had been accosted in her home by a man with a knife. Hendershot remembered that while investigating her case, an officer had alerted her to an incident in October 2009 in Aurora, a suburb on the other side of Denver. Maybe the rape happened and I blacked it out, Marie said. Technicians had swabbed window panes, doorknobs, even toilet handles anything that the attacker might have touched. MARCH 12, 2009 LYNNWOOD, WASHINGTON No one came to court with her that day, except her public defender. Before leaving Washington to restart her life, Marie made an appointment to visit the Lynnwood police station. Shed worked more than 100 rape cases in her career. Two heads, three heads, four heads, sometimes are better than one, right? she said. We learned a great deal from this. But there was not enough genetic material to identify a single individual. The entire series is harrowingly candid portrayal of Marie's story and the horrific injustice she experienced. He wore a black. So did Zachor & Thomas, the law office that handled the prosecution of Marie on Lynnwood's behalf. Rittgarn told Marie that if she took the test and failed, she would be booked into jail. Rittgarn told Marie that her story and the evidence didnt match. Years before the #MeToo movement gave voice to women previously coerced into silence over historic sexual abuse, Marie's story exemplified the disbelief and callous treatment often shown to sexual assault survivors. A week later, Galbraith, Hendershot and Aurora Detective Scott Burgess gathered around a conference table in the Westminster Police Department. After Marie left, accompanied by her foster mom and case manager, the detectives helped process the scene. For the last two or three months, the woman told police, she felt as if someone had been following her. Hidden inside a piece of stereo equipment in his closet, detectives found a collection of womens underwear. But most recent research suggests that false reporting is relatively rare. Marie knew that both had doubted her story, even before the police had. It was just like, freedom. For me it seems like people read me differently than I see myself, Marie said in the written piece about her struggle. Illustrations by Wesley Allsbrook. Over the next 24 hours, more than a dozen investigators threw their collective effort and experience into finding out everything possible about OLeary. 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. He left the room, and walked to the front door, and he was gone. Before, she told the detective she had tried calling Jordan after cutting the laces. We still have to make that definitive identification, Hendershot said. . Later that day a meeting was called at the housing complex, with all of Maries peers gathered in a circle. was living in a small Cocoon House-sponsored apartment after having spent her youth moving among as many as 20 foster homes. He wore a black mask. Her voice was like this little tiny voice, and I couldnt really tell. Next to the bed was a black-handled knife. Two dogs, a small pit bull and a Shar-Pei, tumbled out ahead of him. Nor should police get lost in stereotypes believing, for example, that an adult victim will be more believable than an adolescent. One was her former foster mother, with whom D.M. It was a collaboration between two American, non-profit news organizations, The Marshall Project and ProPublica.The article was written by Ken Armstrong and T. Christian Miller. Armstrong and Miller reported the story in part by interviewing almost everyone involvedMarie, her one-time foster parents, the Colorado detectives who solved the case and one of the Washington cops who bungled it, and the rapist. The pictures showed her looking terrified, bound and gagged on a bed. Investigators must have definitive proof of lying before doubting a rape report, and a charge of false reporting must now be reviewed with higher-ups. [22], "An Anatomy of Doubt" is the 581st episode of the American radio program and podcast This American Life. The man wore a condom, she believed. He looked confused and shocked as he stepped out into the bright winter sun. He had learned from past failures one time, a guy walked in as he stood there, mask on, outside the bedroom door of the woman he planned to rape so now, he did painstaking surveillance: peeking in windows, breaking in beforehand, gathering information. 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. He was alone. He suggested she put a dowel into the bottom track to keep out future intruders. 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. [8] A brief audio recording of Marie describing her rape is included in the article.[2]. He stuffed cloth into her mouth to muffle any sound. A lot of times people say, Believe your victim, believe your victim, Galbraith said. O'Leary had watched women for hundreds of hours, breaking into their houses multiple times before each rape. He was hired by Lynnwood in 2003, and served on a narcotics task force. Marie Theresa Arzer, age 77, of Redmond, Washington passed away on Saturday, February 11, 2023. also reached a settlement with Cocoon House, a private, nonprofit at-risk-youth program where she was living when the assault occurred. By the time of the article, Marie was married with two children. According to a later report, the bullying and . Who is this guy? she asked herself. She had gotten all the classes she wanted. [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. [6] His article "The FBI Built a Database That Can Catch Rapists Almost Nobody Uses It" was published in July 2015. It only made sense to join forces. Roll over onto your stomach, he told her. Lynnwood, Washington 98037. They often dont know about, or fail to use, an FBI database created years ago to help catch repeat offenders. 7. The result was a searchable database of thousands of tag numbers indexed by time and location. [3][9] Armstrong and Miller also interviewed two of Marie's foster parents and her friend, her public defender and civil suit attorney. The next day, when Shannon saw Marie at her apartment, her doubts intensified. Masons judgment was unduly swayed by Peggys phone call. In March 2009, she was charged with a gross misdemeanor, fined $500 and put on probation. After the meeting, Marie started walking to a friends place. This statement appeared to satisfy the detectives. The four known cases took place in different suburbs of Denver. When I went to sleep I dreamed that someone broke in and raped me. Mason told Marie she needed to go to the hospital for a sexual assault examination. D.M. They used laptops to search for any references to OLeary, each using a different search engine. Her foster family was going to adopt her. She doesnt want her first name revealed. With Marie now proven honest, Lynnwood police conducted an independent investigation into the handling of her case. Before she confessed to making up the story, she couldnt look the two detectives, the two men, in the eye. He had served in the Army. For Galbraith, it was important to be the one who made the arrest. [16], The University of Colorado Boulder reported in 2016 that law enforcement officials had requested to use the article in training. 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". While the agents were following the man believed to be Marc OLeary, another FBI agent knocked on the door of the home. It was dark outside when she finished. Mason. This story was co-published with The Marshall Project. Snow covered the ground in patches. Mason in some of the statements we were confident that [Marie] was now telling us the truth that she had not been raped.. Her father had been the chief of police in Kent, south of Seattle. Despite the fact that trauma can sometimes cause victims to give differing accounts of their attacks, police honed in on inconsistencies in Maries story. Galbraith and Hendershot hadnt known each other before the meeting. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Maries case led to changes in practices and culture, Rider said. How can I obtain the complete court record? Investigators, one guide advised, should not assume that a true victim will be hysterical rather than calm; able to show clear signs of physical injury; and certain of every detail. It is graphic, but she told us people should hear it. Marie said she really had been raped and began to cry, saying she was having visions of the man on top of her. Another former foster mom, Peggy Cunningham, thought that maybe Marie got sexual with someone and they took pictures (Marie said her rapist took photos of her) and this rape story was a way to cover that up, according to This American Life.. Sometimes she got to be with her siblings, but most often not, according to the ProPublica report. and her family. Whenever she looked at them in the future, she would remember catching OLeary. 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