COVID lab repurposed to test rape kits, helping clear nation's backlog
An estimated hundreds of thousands of rape kits sit untested in police departments nationwide, according to the Joyful Heart Foundation, a group that helps sexual assault victims.
A college rape suspect remains on the run nearly two years after prosecutors filed charges against him for a Pennsylvania campus attack.
Adams County District Attorney Brian Sinnett on June 29, 2021, announced sexual assault charges against California resident Ian Thomas Cleary, 30, for his alleged role in the December 2013 Gettysburg College rape.
Victim Shannon Keeler, 28, has "had to push and push and put herself out there" while Cleary has "literally gone on with his life," said Andrea Levy, Keeler's attorney and the legal director for the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, per the Associated Press.
"It’s hard to measure that impact on her as a human being [and on] her family, her partner," Levy said. "There’s a cost. There’s a real human cost. It’s someone’s life."
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The Adams County DA on June 29, 2021, announced sexual assault charges against California resident Ian Cleary for his alleged role in the December 2013 Gettysburg College rape. (U.S. Marshals Service)
The suspect – then an upperclassman at Gettysburg College – allegedly stalked Keeler at a college party then barged into her dorm room at night, raped her, then cried with remorse before fleeing her room. Seven years later, he messaged her on Facebook.
"So I raped you," Cleary reportedly wrote in a series of messages to Keeler and obtained by AP. He apparently sent the messages in 2020 while Keeler and her boyfriend were on a weekend trip.
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"I’ll never do it to anyone ever again."
"I need to hear your voice."
"I’ll pray for you."
Ian Cleary remains on the run after he allegedly raped a student at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania in 2013. (Matt Rourke/File)
Authorities failed to file charges immediately after the assault, even though witnesses at the party that Keeler attended had reportedly identified Cleary after the attack and in the years that followed. Even after showing police the Facebook message in 2020, they still did not file any charges.
"Since then, he has again run away from facing this felony charge," Keeler told AP as she tries to "to finally close this never-ending, painful chapter" of her life.
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She has held on to various forms of documentation in her case, including blog posts Cleary appeared to publish from Europe throughout the years since the assault.
Cleary left Gettysburg College and went on to graduate from Santa Clara University, worked for Tesla, then moved to France for several years, according to his blog, which touts his self-published medieval fiction.
Shannon Keeler has held on to various forms of documentation in her case, including blog posts Cleary appeared to publish from Europe throughout the years since the assault. (AP/File)
"How is he financially supporting himself? How is he able to travel abroad without detection? Has he assumed a false identity?" Levy asked. "Who’s helping him?"
After the AP published a story about Keeler and her alleged attacker in 2021, Sinnett announced charges against Cleary. He told the AP that the two-year search for the suspect has been "somewhat frustrating."
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"I just have to think this person is accessing resources from somewhere," Sinnett told the news agency.
Cleary, who is currently wanted by the U.S. Marshals Service, has also been placed on the Interpol Red Notice list. Authorities are asking anyone with information about Cleary's whereabouts to contact the U.S. Marshals Service or the Gettysburg Borough Police Department at 717-334-1168.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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