This Bone-Chilling Story Shows How a Serial Rapist Almost Got Away With His Crimes

As an ex-Marine, Marc O'Leary was meticulous. He knew how to sanitize the scene of his crimes to remove most of his DNA, and he surveilled a victim's home well in advance to learn how to break in without getting caught. He knew that cops in different cities rarely communicated with each other, so he scattered his attacks across the suburbs. 

But when cops finally caught on, the evidence was overwhelming: He had kept trophies from all his victims. He had the same MO: He broke into his victims' homes wearing a black mask, tied them up with shoelaces, raped them, took photos of them and threatened to post them on the Internet, forced them to bathe, and then took their bedding. 

In 2011, O'Leary was sentenced to 327 years in prison a year for sexually assaulting three women and attempting to rape a fourth. ​It was an open-and-shut case. 

Except that it wasn't. Police in Lynwood, Washington, didn't believe one of his earlier victims, identified in reports as "DM" and her middle name, "Marie" when she came forward with her story in 2008. They pressured her into recanting. She was forced to apologize, and then, even though her accusation had not targeted a specific person, she was prosecuted for making a false accusation. Meanwhile, O'Leary went on to assault more women. After his sentencing, Marie would later get a settlement from the city of Lynwood for what she had endured.

The full details of Marie's heartbreaking and shocking story have been published in a powerful piece by the Marshall Project and ProPublica called "An Unbelievable Story of Rape." The report weaves between two narratives: that of Marie and the two detectives who began to investigate her rather than her alleged attacker, and that of Detective Stacy Galbraith, a Golden, Colorado, police officer who met another one of O'Leary's victims and actually listened to — and believed — the victim's claims. 

O'Leary comes across as an inhuman, psychopathic criminal who seems to show no remorse. He describes raping one of his elderly victims as having "eaten Thanksgiving dinner." Knowing what is at stake while reading Marie's story, learning how Det. Mason and Det. Rittgarn handled her case seems criminal:

From what Mason wrote up later, he wasted little time confronting Marie, telling her there were inconsistencies between her statements and accounts from other witnesses.​ Marie said she didn't know of any discrepancies. But she went through the story again — only this time, saying she believed the rape had happened instead of saying it for certain. Tearfully, she described her past — all the foster parents, being raped when she was 7, getting her own place and feeling alone. Rittgarn told Marie that her story and the evidence didn't match. He said he believed she had made the story up — a spur-of-the-moment thing, not something planned out. He asked if there was really a rapist running around the neighborhood that the police should be looking for. "No," Marie told him, her voice soft, her eyes down.​​"Based on her answers and body language it was apparent that [Marie] was lying about the rape," Rittgarn later wrote.​

The case, as far as Rittgarn and Mason were concerned, was over. 

But false accusations are rare. Years later, in Colorado, an elderly woman reported a rape that was similar to Marie's (though police didn't know that part yet). Rather than attempting to discredit the alleged victim, Galbraith attempted to corroborate the woman's story:

Galbraith had a simple rule: listen and verify. "A lot of times people say, 'Believe your victim, believe your victim,'" Galbraith said. "But I don't think that that's the right standpoint. I think it's listen to your victim. And then corroborate or refute based on how things go."​

It was Galbraith's investigation that eventually caught O'Leary and connected him to Marie.​ And it all happened because of how she approached the victims and their stories. It's terrifying to think what would have happened — and how many women would be traumatized — if Galbraith had dealt with the investigation the way Mason and Rittgarn did.

The powerful account highlights just how the approach police officers take with alleged rape and sexual assault victims matters. It makes the difference between silencing or empowering an alleged victim. It makes the difference between catching a criminal or leaving him free to rape again. It makes the difference between more victims coming forward or more staying quiet. Read this unbelievable story here.

Follow Prachi on Twitter.​