"Hidden in plain sight is how I would describe it," said Galbraith. She was there to investigate a report of rape. He had a term for what he was about to do: "rape theatre". That one case turned out to be a treasure trove full of evidence and information that definitively linked all the attacks together. "48 Hours" correspondent Maureen Maher has a rare look inside the mind of this predator, and the female detectives determined to hunt him down before he could strike again. 'Unbelievable' true story of serial sex attacker whose 'rape theatre' fantasies inspired by Princess Leia in chains saw him jailed for 327 years Police refused to believe one of Marc. "And I still remember this moment -- that's when he leaned back and smiled," said Grusing. By 2pm on Saturday, they had a result. He moved deliberately. A computer forensics specialist looked into O'Leary's hard drive files and found a folder named "girls," which had pictures of the victims. It was just after midnight in Aurora, Colorado, 10 miles outside Denver. Peggy called the police to share her concerns. The description of the attacker was almost exactly the same. The 32-year-old O'Leary was separated from his wife and studying at a local community college. He had taken her sheets and bedding. . Hidden inside a piece of stereo equipment was a collection of women's underwear. Roll over onto your stomach, he told her. Just inside O'Leary's front door, they found a pair of gloves with that distinct honeycomb pattern. Confused, the agent told the man he was canvassing the neighbourhood to warn of a burglar in the area. Before, she told the detective she had tried calling Jordan after cutting the laces. he would ask himself. "That was that 'aha' moment.". "You know, I didn't -- I didn't sleep well that night," said Galbraith. "He was lining her up for an assault," said Grusing. After that, she quickly changed her story. The descriptions of the attacker were similar. She pounded the table and said she was "pretty positive". O'Leary wasn't willing to discuss anything that he had not pleaded guilty to. Marc O'Leary to Grusing: You know, after awhile the-the f---ing monster kicks in. "I guess you won't leave your windows open in the future," the man told the woman, who had recently been widowed. O'Leary described his feelings after one of the rapes. According to the article, Marie had previously experienced both sexual and physical abuse in her early life. "You should get help," the woman told the man. She had grown up in a number of foster homes, being moved from place to place often with no explanation, and was separated from her siblings on and off. P-e-c-h. Julie Pech, a single mom, who had no idea O'Leary was stalking her. "And what he picked up on was that they were made to shower for a certain time period and basically wash away the evidence.". Westminster crime-scene investigators had discovered similar marks on the window of the victim's apartment. Boston New York City Houston Chicago Los Angeles . First published on November 19, 2016 / 11:14 PM. "I suppose because I wasn't looking for that, it just never occurred to me that it could happen.". "We didn't even know he had a brother until that moment.". He had been punctilious. That had to be significant.". Bound her hands behind her back. "No," Pech replied. He was Marc O'Leary. If youve been affected by the issues raised in this story, you can access more information on their website or by calling the National Rape Crisis Helpline on 0808 802 9999. And after: Adult caregivers and professionals coming in and then out of her life, some distressing or abusive experiences, and a general lack of permanency. Police checked it out, but the man was gone. At his December 2011 sentencing, O'Leary reportedly told the court, "I'm standing here because I need to be in prison. The pink Sony Cyber-shot camera was found on a bookshelf in O'Leary's home office, Marc O'Leary's ex-girlfriend: "Something was off between us", Breaking into the mind of a serial rapist. Marc O'Leary to Grusing: You know, you'll hear psychologists and shrinks will say that rape is a crime about power and control. She waited like he told her in that bathtub, cold and frightened, for more than an hour. "That seemed very strange," Shannon says. We were always bouncing things off each other" (via CBS News). By late January, the detectives decided they needed to broaden their scope. No one came to court with her that day, except her public defender. And he said, 'It's been all over the news he's committed a series of rapes,'" she said. Then, confronted by police with inconsistencies in her story, she had conceded it might have been a dream. After a three-year reign of terror in Colorado, O'Leary was caught and later sentenced to 327 years in prison - the maximum allowed by law. As David listened, he realised the details were unsettlingly familiar. The woman started screaming a man's name, yelling for help. Many of them they recognised, but one they did not Marie Adler. Bet you wish you could have shot me. He got a hit. He watched as she awoke. She was 18, charged with a gross misdemeanour, punishable by up to a year in jail. She had been alone in her apartment the previous evening. She had met Marc O'Leary on the online dating site OkCupid in 2009, and the man she thought she knew presented himself very differently. Late to the party and all but it's likely something may come out of it. September 16, 2017 / 7:04 PM I knew she had an alarm system, but she never used it. "Don't know," he replied. And something else he said at the sentencing caught the detectives' attention. Since then Marc has changed 2 companies and 2 roles. Marie - that's her middle name - didn't say anything. Rape Crisis Scotlands helpline number is 08088 01 03 02. "She was very brave.". "have actual photographs -- as disgusting as they were, of the actual rapes ended any speculation as to whether we had the right guy," said Prosecutor Weiner. This folder contained hundreds of photos of his crimes. Shannon said she did, too. On August 18, one week after she reported being raped, she met the two Project Ladder managers and insisted she had signed the recantation under duress. We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. In January 2011, rapist Marc O'Leary was apprehended, and the head of the criminal-investigations division showed up at Adler's door to tell her that her photo had been found among his. According to All That's Interesting, O'Leary (above) was eventually caught due to where he would park his car, a white Mazda, during his crimes. "I mean, you got the truck. Does Unforgotten work without Nicola Walker? Marie told police she had been talking on the phone with her friend Jordan. Specialties: Omni Channel Commerce, Direct to Consumer Marketing, including SEO/SEM, Internet Identity, and Positioning. "He talked about how his pendulum would swing and he could not control it. The commander and his team headed straight to the young woman's home. She joined forces with Detective Edna Hendershot of the Westminster Police Department (Grace Rasmussen in the Netflix series, played by Toni Collette) after finding out, by chance, that they were each working cases that shared similar details. They were about to get rare look into the mind of a serial rapist. It was the exact camera that was stolen from the Westminster victim and used to photograph the Golden victim. "And ultimately, she was given a citation for false reporting.". Three weeks before the attempted rape, a woman had called police to report a suspicious pickup truck parked on the street with a man inside. Unbelievable arrived to Netflix on Friday (September 13), bringing the story of teenager Marie Adler (played by Kaitlyn Dever) to screen. Neither Peggy nor Shannon abandoned her, but things weren't the same. people search. And Stacy immediately keyed on that and said, 'My victim was photographed with a pink Sony Cyber-shot camera,'" said Hendershot. It's possible that this could have been a result of finally getting into the hard drive mentioned in the final episode of Netflix's Unbelievable. EEAAO star gives tearful speech after historic win, The best Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom deals, Stranger Things announces prequel with a twist, Knives Out 3: Everything you need to know, Outer Banks: Where else to watch the cast. Which streaming is best for you: Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, Apple TV or NOW TV. The analyst turned up an incident in Lakewood, another Denver suburb, that occurred about a month before the rape in Westminster. we waited and watched.". This time, though, there was something different. marc o'leary hard drive marc o'leary hard drive. He was even in their homes without attacking them. It was a picture of the woman's learner's driving licence, placed on her chest. That's not accurate. Maybe she was making up the rape to get moved to a new one. In this written statement, she described calling him while still tied up. The show and a few sources claim there's a 75gb encrypted hard drive of information. However, Lynnwood, Washington police officers chose not to question her further or believe her, and eventually badgered her into signing a document that indicated she had made up everything she said, according to CBS News. Turn away, he told Marie - and she did. O'Leary was charged with that woman's rape and yet another similar sexual assault in Washington. "Did you know that at one point he was in the house and you were asleep?" And at Hendershot's crime scene in Westminster, there was another piece of evidence. Readers in the US are encouraged to contact RAINN, or the National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800-656-4673. The detectives elevated "minor inconsistencies" - common among victims - into discrepancies, while ignoring strong evidence the crime had occurred. The police failed to properly investigate, and failed others in the process. On her way, she crossed a bridge. This glove pattern was found in the Lakewood case. Please enter valid email address to continue. Gagged her. Note: This article contains spoilers for Unbelievable. He developed a pattern of spying on homes, both from the outside and from the inside after breaking in. As part of the team followed the couple to lunch at a restaurant, Grusing stayed behind, hoping to install a surveillance camera on the house. Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? "She also described him as a little bit chubby," Galbraith added. The eight-part limited series dramatises this true story as well as the wider case that surrounded it, and is based on the award-winning article from The Marshall Project (which shines a light on the criminal justice system in the US) and Pro Publica (a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power). "Had you ever heard that name before?" "It was very hard for me to process it," she said. Just, like, you could just kinda see the life go out of him for a second," she said of his reaction. "He was educated enough to know what we were looking for and know what he needed to take to throw us off," Det. The investigators hadn't known that there were two O'Leary brothers. Marc O'Leary in court: and I'm out of control. He entered a plea of guilty to 28 counts of rape and other related charges, and was sentenced to 327.5 years in prison the maximum that could be passed by law. And that wasn't all. That Marie recanted wasn't surprising, Rinta wrote, given the "bullying" she was subjected to. "I never felt like I had the opportunity," Mary replied. "Well, we needed to make sure," said Galbraith. Galbraith checked out the footprints left at the Lakewood scene. "It's too late for that," he replied. "Yes. Around 7am, he stood in her bedroom doorway, holding, at shoulder height, a knife in his left hand. "So in his closet we came up with his shoes," Galbraith said, showing them to Maher. When she got to his legs, she raised his trouser leg to look. She had reported being raped in her apartment by a man who had bound and gagged her. Snow covered the ground in patches. Marie said that after the rapist left she had managed, with her feet, to retrieve some scissors from a drawer; she cut herself free, then tried calling Jordan. Marie sued the city and settled for $150,000 (around 100,000). But impressions from a glove," Det. But he, thoughtfully, photographed her with her driver's license on her," said Galbraith. She wanted to take a lie-detector test. So, too, his methods. She reports not knowing much about her biological mother, whom she said would often leave her in the care of boyfriends. "And he just turned around, went down the stairs -- went out to the back, climbed over the fence, and left.". 2000-2017. Over the next four hours, he raped her repeatedly. It was heart-wrenching to know that she had lived with this alone for all those years.". "But I didn't show him fear in any real way, and he knew I wasn't scared. "Probably the only time I just wanted to die in my life," she says. This was definitive proof that she had been telling the truth about her attack from the start. "He was pretty chivalrous and protective," she said. She remained close with Shannon, who would joke that she and Peggy were raising Marie together - Shannon the fun one (let's go boating), Peggy the disciplinarian (be home by). O'Leary also tied her wrists with her own shoelaces, gagged her, and blindfolded her. "Correct," Grusing replied. The piece, which won a Pulitzer Prize and was published in December 2015, was entitled An Unbelievable Story of Rape and took a year to compile. Marie wrote that the attacker said she could untie herself once he was gone: After he left I grabbed my phone (which was right next to my head) with my mouth and I tried to call Jordan back. Peggy discovered a programme called Project Ladder, designed to help young adults who had grown up in foster care transition to living on their own. He said he could come and pick her up, to take her to the police station. "They came out immediately," Galbraith replied. "It was like I'd just eaten Thanksgiving dinner," he said. "Why would you want to have the same sheets and bedspread to look at every day when you'd been raped on this bed set?" Three days after Marie reported being raped, Mason called Marie, to ask if they could meet. This dental device was sold to fix patients' jaws. Without reading Marie her rights, the detectives asked her to write out the true story, admitting she had lied, admitting, in effect, that she had committed a crime. She read the email and her mind shot back five months, to a Tuesday in August 2010. The report on Marie's life - written by a mental-health expert who interviewed her for five hours - is written with clinical detachment, describing her life before she entered foster care She met her biological father only once. Then a crime analyst from the Lakewood police department conducted a search for reports of suspicious vehicles or prowlers within a quarter-mile of the Lakewood victim's home for the previous six months. So, too, did O'Leary's truck. He taunted her about a phone conversation of hers, one he had been listening to for hours, as well as over the fact that he entered through a door she had left open. 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. "He just went pale. He tried to bind her wrists. Investigators turned up a black Ruger .380-calibre pistol, a pink Sony Cyber-shot camera and a large backpack, along with wet wipes and lubrication. I'm gonna call the police,'" Pech said. The statement was only one page. Right? After O'Leary was linked to Marie's rape, Lynnwood Police Chief Steven Jensen requested an outside review of how his department had handled the investigation. "And what was their response when you called and said, 'Hey, you know that case of that young woman who you thought was lying and you charged her? While the agents were following the man believed to be Marc O'Leary, another FBI agent knocked on the door of the home. A little before nine on a Monday morning, two Lynnwood detectives responded to a report of rape at the Alderbrooke Apartments. We-- we got him.' Grusing saw that monster up close. He was curious I would say, more than anything to see why would we even be knocking on his door," he replied. It wasn't just the police who seemed to doubt Marie's story; her foster parents also questioned her behaviour in the aftermath of the attack. And what about those hard drives with the hundreds of photos of other women? But what happened to that woman was far worse than the detectives could imagine. They were a perfect match to those shoeprints found near two of the crime scenes. He will never be released. "He looked a little surprised. "Walking in and out of your house, taking things from your place?" When they finished, the agents raced in. A woman, who we will call Mary, had no idea she was being stalked by a strange man. "This is a pink, Sony Cyber-shot camera that was collected from the office of O'Leary's residence," Galbraith explained. And tell him that he was not supposed to be there and this was not going to happen.". The following article contains discussion of sexual misconduct that some readers may find upsetting. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Meritt Weaver, right, plays Karen Duvall, based on real-life former Golden police Detective Stacy . It had cost her sense of worth. Self-esteem gave way to self-loathing. Investigators found a pair of Adidas ZX 700 shoes in O'Leary's wardrobe. The dark mark on his leg. One detective later wrote in a report, "The shoes were lying next to each other near the end of the couch, on the soles as if placed there (not disturbed).". Galbraith hurried to work to follow up her husband's lead. Rittgarn asked Marie. Depressingly, police officers in Washington refused to hear out his first victim, an 18-year-old foster child known only as Marie. Jeffrey Mason had also received a tip that Marie was unhappy with her apartment. Afterwards, he made her take a shower. As far as I can find it's still uncracked. But she still got up, ran to her neighbor's house, and called the police.". Marc O'Leary (credit: Jefferson County) Lakewood and Aurora quickly became part of the investigation. The man introduced himself. She remembered one physical detail: a dark mark on his left calf the size of an egg. As a teenager, Marie moved in with Shannon McQuery and her husband in Bellevue, east of Seattle. "Oh my, yes, yes," Mary replied. Then she admitted making the story up. He is never coming out, so the world is definitely a safer place without him. Her husband just happened to be a police officer over in a neighboring town. But there was nothing to pull the entire picture together. "So not quite a fingerprint," Maher noted. ! "This is why I do this. I won't let him instill fear in me. Shannon, an estate agent, and Marie were both "kind of goofy", Shannon says. But when he looked closer, he saw it was a failed rape attempt; the victim describing a masked man. And it looks like the registered owner gets in it with a female," said Det. His sentence would more than satisfy: over 300 years in prison -- a staggering number. But O'Leary was caught in 2011. But Detectives Galbraith and Hendershot believe it doesn't stop there. Rittgarn asked. "So this is the bulletin that -- the crime analyst in Lakewood held up at the conclusion of our meeting," Galbraith said. Galbraith pulled him to the side and patted him down. She compared O'Leary's white Mazda to the surveillance tape. And by the time he jumps off of her and checks the room, she gets on her bed and dives out a window that is about one foot high by four feet wide onto the concrete outside," Grusing explained. After a five-week crush, there were few leads and no suspects. The treads matched the footprints in the snow in Golden and outside the window in Lakewood. It took the entire group.". "I know you couldn't, but did you want to?" If I didn't shut up, he would --he would kill me.". "He didn't seem to be really working hard to hide everything," Maher pointed out. They matched the footprints in the snow outside her victim's apartment in Golden. She started smoking, drinking, gaining weight. Galbraith identify him, A False Report, by Ken Armstrong and T Christian Miller, is published by Hutchinson on February 6. The attacker thought someone else might be in the Lakewood house. Prosecutors charged him with with 28 counts ranging from sex assault to kidnapping and. Marie had made it through. But it was at his sentencing hearing, that fireworks really began. Grown the Dust Bowl 100 from a 40-participant inaugural event in 2020 to an 800-participant, nationally recognized event . Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right. And in law enforcement it's -- that's the, you know, that's the green light," said Galbraith. And I was told that probably no one ever will.". 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