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'So I raped you': Chilling message renews woman's seven-year struggle

Shannon Keeler was enjoying a weekend getaway with her boyfriend last year when she checked her Facebook messages for the first time in ages. A name popped up that stopped her cold.

“So I raped you,” the person said in a burst of unread messages sent six months earlier.

“I’ll never do it to anyone ever again.

“I need to hear your voice.

“I’ll pray for you.”

The messages rocketed Ms Keeler back to the life-shattering night in December 2013 when a male student at Gettysburg College stalked her at a party, sneaked into her dormitory and barged into her room while she pleaded with him and texted friends for help. It was the final night of her first semester of university.

The alleged perpetrator messaged, saying he would pray for his victim.
The alleged perpetrator messaged, saying he would pray for his victim. Source: AP

Eight years later, she still hopes to persuade authorities in the US state of Pennsylvania to make an arrest, armed now with perhaps her strongest piece of evidence: his alleged confession, sent via social media.

But is it enough?

Before and after the attack, Ms Keeler followed the protocols designed to prevent campus sex assaults or address them when they happen.

She had a male friend walk her home from the party. She reported the rape that day, met with police and endured a painful and intrusive rape exam. And she pushed for charges. Yet, at every turn, the justice system failed her, just like it fails most college rape victims.

For all the focus on sexual violence in the #MeToo era, very few campus rapes are ever prosecuted, according to victim advocates and the limited crime data available.

Only one in five university sex assault victims in the US report to police. And when they do, prosecutors often hesitate to take cases where victims had been drinking or knew the accused.

Victim helpless despite 'evidence'

“It has bothered me over the years that I was never able to do anything,” Ms Keeler, now 26, said.

“If you’re not going to help me, who are you going to help? Because I do have evidence.”

At Gettysburg, a small school with about 2500 students, 95 rapes were reported to campus security from 2013 to 2019 — but only 10 non-child rape cases were prosecuted in the entire county during that period, according to school data and county court records.

And that discourages students like Katayoun Amir-Aslani, who quietly left Gettysburg after her own sexual assault in the spring of 2014, from coming forward.

She met Ms Keeler the night she was assaulted. Then few months later, she was raped at Gettysburg by an acquaintance, she said.

She did not file a report. She did not get a rape kit. Instead, she quietly left school after that spring.

“I didn’t have any witnesses, and after the experience I had… with Shannon, and nothing happened with her, I just (thought), ‘Well, what’s the point of me going through all of this for nothing?’” the 26-year-old New Yorker said.

“So I just didn’t really tell anyone.’”

For Ms Keeler, the suspect’s withdrawal from school ended the campus investigation.

Two years later, just after the window to file a civil suit closed, then-district attorney Shawn Wagner said he wouldn’t be filing charges.

The alleged assault took place in December 2013 at Gettysburg College.
The alleged assault took place in December 2013 at Gettysburg College. Source: Google Maps

Rape convictions exceedingly rare in such cases

Ms Keeler recalls him saying it was difficult to bring cases when alcohol is involved.

Mr Wagner, now a county judge, declined to speak with The Associated Press.

His successor, District Attorney Brian Sinnett, would not discuss the specifics of Ms Keeler’s case, but said he can’t file charges unless a case meets the high bar needed for conviction.

“You have to look at what evidence do you have: can it be corroborated, whether it fits in with the statute of limitations, what is the likelihood of success at trial? All of those types of things,” he said

Authorities in Adams County are looking anew at Ms Keeler’s case since she retained a lawyer and showed them the Facebook messages last June. The 12-year statute of limitations has not run.

The suspect, identified by others at the party, left Gettysburg but denied any wrongdoing in an email to school officials, according to records that Ms Keeler obtained.

His withdrawal ended the school’s investigation, she said.

The Associated Press — which tried to reach the 28-year-old man through phone numbers and emails linked to him and his parents, and through social media — is not identifying him because he has not been charged.

None of the AP’s messages were returned. He appeared to finish college at another school based on his online profile.

Ms Keeler learned last year from a new detective that her rape kit had been destroyed after the case was initially closed. Her lawyer, Washington-based Laura Dunn, said that often happens even before the statute of limitations runs, “which makes no sense”. Pennsylvania law now bars the practice.

Ms Keeler stayed at Gettysburg, capping her time there with a Division III national championship in lacrosse her senior year. She thought of it as “the ultimate victory” over her attacker.

Still, there have been breakdowns, and therapy, and too much drinking for a time, and setbacks.

“I wasn’t the best version of myself for a few years,” Ms Keeler, who now has a job she enjoys in software sales and a happy relationship with her long-time boyfriend, said.

“My anger was more at the criminal justice system than what actually happened."

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