It wasnt until 2 years later, when OLeary was arrested in Colorado, that Lynnwood police reopened their investigation. That was an interesting conversation you were having, he said, letting her know that he had been there, listening, waiting. I pretty much just cried, Marie says. Tuesday 7:00am - 9:00pm The DNA from the cup matched the DNA collected from the victims. [20] At the Investigative Reporters and Editors' 2016 conference, the pair gave a talk about their experience writing the article. In 2008, Marie's case was one of four labeled unfounded by the Lynnwood police, according to . At Elle Marie Hair Studio, we believe your experience should be empowering and transformative. Within days of reporting being raped, Marie had quit her job at Costco, unable to stand there, looking at people, lost in her head. The victims accounts were also borne out. He was sentenced to 327 and a halfyears in prison. Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. Police, walking around Maries apartment, discovered that the rear sliding glass door was unlocked and slightly ajar. I didnt want this time to be like that, Marie said of her attack on This American Life, comparing it to her first rape. Coverage of the latest true crime stories and famous cases explained, as well as the best TV shows, movies and podcasts in the genre. Celebrate the life of Marie Arzer, leave a kind word or memory and get funeral service information. After Marie approached Mason, he offered an apology. Shed gone through so much already. And Zoloft is an adult drug I was on that at 8, she said, according to the article. After finally falling asleep, she was awakened by a man with a knife and then tied up, blindfolded, gagged and raped. One of the last things he said was that he was sorry. On her way, she crossed a bridge. I cant imagine ANY justification for making these statements., Jensen also ordered an internal review, which was similarly damning. They tailed the pair to a nearby restaurant, and watched them eat. Alerted to the site, Marie went into a frenzy, trashing her apartment. Later that day a meeting was called at the housing complex, with all of Maries peers gathered in a circle. They then informed Lynwood police, who informed Marie and Marie sued the city and received a settlement of $150,000. Just keep working! Galbraith insisted. Information from Seattle Times archives is included in this report. [8] Extracts of an external report made of the police department that investigated Marie's case were made public for the first time in the article. . She had been alone in her apartment the previous evening. He insisted on a fax. An external report by Sergeant Gregg Rinta, who worked for the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office as a sex crimes supervisor, condemned the handling of Marie's case. Only about one-fifth to one-third of rapes get reported to police, national surveys show. Monday 7:00am - 9:00pm. One freeze frame showed that her white Mazda had a broken passenger side mirror. They had moved up in the ranks. That seemed very strange, Shannon says. Mason returned to the evidence. Galbraith was younger. By 2011, Colorado Detectives Stacy Galbraith and Edna Hendershot, officers from separate departments in different towns, were working together to catch a serial rapist terrorizing women, completely unaware that Marie even existed. She asked that her current location not be disclosed. Despite that, she tried to enjoy life and liked school, hiking, photography, and going to the beach with friends. She was young, dressed in a brown, full-length coat. So did Zachor & Thomas, the law office that handled the prosecution of Marie on Lynnwood's behalf. Ken Armstrong is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who previously worked at The Seattle Times and Chicago Tribune, where his work helped prompt the Illinois governor to suspend executions and later empty death row. T. Christian Miller of ProPublica had been reporting on law enforcement failures in identifying rapists throughout 2015. In Lynnwood, Washington, an 18-year-old woman, referred to as "Marie," reported being bound, gagged and raped at knifepoint to police. 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. But then Galbraith stumbled across an image of a woman she didnt recognize. They spraypainted the prints fluorescent orange to make them stand out, then took pictures. 1. They were both cops, after all. When they finished, the agents raced in. A friend from 10th grade called to ask: How could you lie about something like that? Maries account, in her own words. She had no family nearby. Masons judgment was unduly swayed by Peggys phone call. This was the cleanest house Ive ever searched. In June 2012, he was sentenced to an additional 38.5 years for two incidents in Washington. She would need to go on supervised probation. She said it was about 7 a.m. when she woke to find a man standing over her bed with a butcher knife and wearing latex gloves. D.M., who now lives in Wyoming, said through her attorneys Yvonne Kinoshita Ward and Rich Fisher that she was glad for the settlement and ready to move forward in the next chapter of her life.. Later that day Aug. 14, three days after Marie reported being raped Mason called Marie, to ask if they could meet. Galbraith felt sick. Now, we're extra careful that we get the right closure on it.. His brother, Michael OLeary, had just left to get lunch with his girlfriend. Afterward, the paperwork went to a small law firm that Lynnwood had hired to prosecute misdemeanors. Afterward, he ordered her to brush her teeth and wash herself in the shower. Galbraith listened to the woman with a sense of alarm. One sample was collected from the kitchen timer in Westminster. We have no doubt that Marie's story will inspire many viewers and hopefully encourage police departments to have more rigorous training when it comes to dealing with rape victims. This was never meant to happen. DMV records showed OLeary sat for a drivers license mugshot about four hours after the Westminster attack. Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or [email protected]. And the Westminster widow had told Hendershot that her attacker wore a white T-shirt during her assault. Galbraith and Hendershot hadnt known each other before the meeting. So he deliberately committed each rape in a different jurisdiction. Selena Gomez says her biggest mistake is losing touch with the Wizards of Waverly Place, Miley Cyrus Tour 2023: Tickets, prices, presale, dates, setlist and everything we know, High School Music: The Musical: The Series. She kept in touch with previous foster families. The man wore a condom, she believed. Shannon and Marie were both kind of goofy, Shannon says. 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. It was dark outside when she finished. Marie began questioning whether she had dreamed the ordeal, and later told police she had made the story up. Cops can be protective about their cases, fearing that information could be leaked that would jeopardize their investigations. He had broken into more than a dozen homes since. Social scientists examining police records in detail and using methodologically rigorous standards cite similar, single-digit rates. I basically had 20 minutes to pack my stuff and go.. I wanted to see the look on his face, I guess, she said. In the living room, he removed the laces from her black tennis shoes and put the shoes back. 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. A half-dozen officers and technicians were now at work. Lynnwood, Washington 98037. The license plate was unreadable. He was certain Marie had lied. She claims the officers interrogated her and put words in her mouth.. There was no one out there who had hurt her and no one who might hurt them next. Among the items Colorado detectives found in OLearys possession were photographs of D.M. Afterward, she could. He wore a black mask. Tall, winter-bare trees towered above the roof. A collaboration between The Marshall Project and ProPublica, it was published on both websites on December 16, 2015. She cited Marie's lack of tears, claiming shedidnt think that Marie was emotional enough and she found it suspicious that Marie told several people about what had happened. The article alternates between two true stories of events occurring between August 2008 and June 2012. But he spent so much time hunting (thats what he called it, hunting), hundreds of hours, maybe even a thousand, that he conditioned himself to incorporate as many women as possible, young or old, into his fantasies. In an interview with police after his conviction, OLeary recounted his attacks in detail. One officer suggested a bathroom break. Marie sued the city, winning $150,000. The statement was only one page. Not long before, Marie had accompanied Peggy and the sisters and Peggys boyfriend on a picnic. Marie's foster parents and police in Lynnwood have since apologized to her. The samples narrowed the field of suspects to males belonging to the same paternal family line. Am I in trouble? Marie asked the detective. 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. Before leaving Washington to restart her life, Marie made an appointment to visit the Lynnwood police station. The credibility of the victim was often on trial as much as the guilt of the accused. But not enough.. For Marie, this was a familiar drill, one she could trace to her years of being abused as a kid, and to her years in foster care, bouncing from home to home and school to school. I have a background in mental health and Ive been working with kids for a really long time. He told his wife to call his department first thing in the morning. Or fabricating a ruse to cover a sexual encounter gone wrong? He was not a registered sex offender. Neither had known Marie to be a liar to exaggerate, sure, to want attention, sure but now, both knew they werent alone in wondering if Marie had made this up. He had taken her sheets and bedding. She clearly remembered one physical detail about him: a dark mark on his left calf the size of an egg. The main characters are based on Marie (Kaitlyn Dever), known in the series as Marie Adler, and Detectives Edna Hendershot and Stacy Galbraith, who were renamed as Grace Rasmussen (Toni Collette) and Karen Duvall (Merritt Wever). They often dont know about, or fail to use, an FBI database created years ago to help catch repeat offenders. At 8:15 a.m., Galbraith knocked on OLearys door. It had cost her sense of worth. 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. He is currently housed in the Sterling Correctional Facility in the barren, remote northeastern corner of Colorado. She let it go and hung up, thinking, Okay, I hope that works out for you guys.. Over the next 24 hours, more than a dozen investigators threw their collective effort and experience into finding out everything possible about OLeary. "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 to ProPublica. He told the man he was canvassing the neighborhood to warn of a burglar in the area. It had her name. Based on her answers and body language it was apparent that [Marie] was lying about the rape, Rittgarn later wrote. Marie thats her middle name, Marie didnt say anything. Later, she was charged with making a false police reporta crime punishable by up to a year in jail. Seattle still the nations saddest large metro area, survey shows, Plan to reduce homelessness in downtown Seattle picks up after slow start, Former Seattle deputy mayor heads to Biden administration, Microsoft employee charged with attempted murder in unprovoked stabbing, Seattle's lowland snow was hit and miss expect more of the same this week, claimed Lynnwood detectives disregarded evidence. And when the two went to buy new bedding Maries old bedding having been taken as evidence Marie became furious when she couldnt find the same set. He left the room, and walked to the front door, and he was gone. The detectives, Sgt. He moved deliberately. I went into this dark hole.. [1], After seven months of email and phone communication with Marie's lawyer, Marie agreed to speak to Armstrong. Maybe the rape happened and I blacked it out, Marie said. Our personalities didnt match at first either, Marie says. OLeary was put in a patrol car and transported to the Jefferson County Jail. Her story hadnt hurt anyone no suspects arrested, or even questioned. 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. They were knocking on neighbors doors, snapping photographs in the apartment, digging through garbage bins, swabbing the walls, the windows, everywhere for DNA. On August 11, 2008, Marc Patrick O'Leary raped an eighteen year old at knife point in Lynnwood, Washington. In 2008, an 18-year-old woman was brutally raped at her apartment in Lynnwood, Washington, gagged and bound by an intruder in the middle of the night. Peggy didnt have any. returned to the police station with Cocoon House representatives and asked to withdraw the denial and insisted that she had been attacked. The attack. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. Maries case led to changes in practices and culture, Rider said. If detectives could eliminate OLearys male relatives, they could place OLeary at the scene of the crimes with a high degree of certainty. Mason, then 39, had spent his years mostly in patrol and narcotics. Between one-fourth to two-thirds of rapists are serial attackers, studies show. Marie was into boys, drawing and music, be it rock, country, or Christian. And instead of interviewing Marie as a victim, they began interrogating her as a suspect.". The pictures showed her looking terrified, bound and gagged on a bed. There was something about how she said it just made me question whether or not shed actually been raped, Shannon said on Anatomy of Doubt.. [6][8] Miller called the woman's lawyer and discovered she was in contact with Ken Armstrong of The Marshall Project, who had been working on an article about the case for several months. He had previously worked as a technician in the aerospace industry. 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. O'Leary had watched women for hundreds of hours, breaking into their houses multiple times before each rape. Marie was heavily medicated, although its not clear why. For the last two or three months, the woman told police, she felt as if someone had been following her. As we see in the series, Marie "reported being raped in her apartment by a man who had bound and gagged her." He planned to install a surveillance camera nearby and wanted to make sure that nobody was around. OLeary, in addition to assaulting D.M., also admitted he raped a 63-year-old Kirkland woman. He ordered the women to shower. Their initial attempts to identify the attacker faltered. Trophies. She could carry on a conversation with adults. Next to the bed was a black-handled knife. She did and then he straddled her, putting the knife near her face. 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