Criminology - Marc O'Leary

Episode Date: October 17, 2021

Marc O'Leary was a serial rapist who committed his crimes in multiple states. His very specific M.O. included taking digital pictures of his victims which ultimately led to his downfall. It took some good police work and DNA to finally capture him. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the crimes committed by O'leary. But, this episode is about much more than just him. It's about his victims and one in particular named Marie who reported her assault in Washington. But, the police didn't believe her and said that her story didn't line up with the evidence. Feeling immense pressure, this woman recanted her story. Ultimately it was discovered that she was an early victim of Marc O'leary and that if police had taken her seriously they may have been able to stop a large number of sexual assaults from occurring. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode 179 of the Criminology Podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Morph, what's going on with you, buddy? Not too much. I've been a little bit sick this week. My voice has been giving me a lot of problems, but knock on wood, I feel like I'm ready to do this episode today.

What's new with you? No, no, not much. We had to put it off for a little while, right? because the voice is kind of important when you're recording an episode. Yeah, you don't realize it until you're talking for an hour and then all of a sudden you're coughing and your voice is cutting in and out. So hopefully by the end of the episode, people are understanding me and it's clear and not annoying. We had some great Patreon support.

So let's give some shoutouts to Lynn Mulville, Terry Nimman's, Jim Siniker, Heather Cambia Largey, Judith, Nicole Wren, Brenna, Sarah Levitz jumped out at our highest level, and Norel Peterson. So that's a lot of great new support. Yeah, thank you so much for that. That goes a long way to help put out the show, and we can't thank you enough. And if you'd like to support criminology, you can do so by going to patreon.com slash criminology. All right, buddy, it's time to jump into this episode. And today we're talking about two very different people, one, a prolific and

brazen serial rapist whose trail of terror spanned two states. His specific MO and well-planned attacks prove that this person was a monster, a monster very reminiscent of the East Area rapist, Golden State Killer, Joseph DeAngelo. The other person at the center of this case is a young woman, known only as Marie, who bravely survived her encounter with this violent rapist only to face disbelief and doubt from the detectives in charge of finding her attacker. Marie's story is so powerful that it inspired a Netflix miniseries. 18-year-old Marie was the first known victim of the serial rapist. For the protection of her privacy, Marie's actual full name has never been released to the

public. Before we get into the details about what happened to Marie, it's important to understand a little bit about her background. Marie was living in her one-bedroom Linwood Washington apartment, 16 miles north of Seattle, with help from an organization called Project Ladder. Project Ladders an assistance program designed to aid people transitioning from the foster care system to living alone and being on their own. They also help with life skills like grocery shopping and using a credit card. Marie had a rough life growing up. She met her biological father only once, and her mother would leave her with random boyfriends very often. often. When she was seven, Marie was sexually assaulted. She suppressed what happened to her and she

didn't talk about it. She doesn't remember whether or not she went to kindergarten, but knows that she entered foster care at around six or seven. She moved a lot living in 11 different foster homes as a child and even more group homes. Marie also remembers that she was hungry as a child and that sometimes she would eat dog food. She has three siblings, two brothers and a sister whom she was not always placed with. So they were separated quite a bit. Marie was on a psychotropic medication from a young age. She recalls that she started Zoloft at the age of eight. She had no sense of stability, consistency, or permanency. But Marie had come a long way and she had obtained her GED. by the time she was 17 and living on her own.

When she turned 18 was like a fresh start for her. Participants of Project Ladder, like Marie, are required to follow a strict set of rules and guidelines and agree to be held accountable by the program managers as well as their peers in the program. Project Ladder expects those in the program to steer clear of criminal activities or any type of criminal charges. Things were going well for 18-year-old Marie after she settled. in their new apartment. But that all changed in the overnight hours of August 11, 2008, when Marie was awakened by a mass intruder. Before she could gain her senses, the man, a white man in a gray sweater, threatened her at knife point, tied her up, and gagged and

blindfolded her. Once Marie was incapacitated, she was sexually assaulted. While she was going through the terrifying experience, she tried to think of any details, things that she could remember later on after this ordeal ended. Marie believed that the man used a condom during the assault, but she wasn't sure about it. He also took photographs of her, which he said he would put online for everyone to see if she even tried to call the police. After a short while, the apartment was quiet. Marie lay still trying to figure out if the man who had just raped her was gone.

When she got a sense that, the room was quiet and still. She knew that he was gone. Marie used her feet to grab its scissors and was able to get a hold of them. And she began trying to free herself. She would later tell police that she was able to cut the bindings on her hands and then remove the gag and blindfold. But she was terrified that the attacker might return, Marie ran to the phone. And she called her friend Jordan, who she had been talking two hours before.

Marie then called her foster mother. and an upstairs neighbor. But she didn't call 911 because of the threat from the rapist that he would post photos of her online if she contacted police. That threat kept going through her mind. The upstairs neighbor went to Marie's apartment to help her. And it was this upstairs neighbor that called 911 to report Marie's assault. When investigators arrived at the scene, they surveyed the apartment for any clues and found shoestringes that had been removed from Marie's shoes. These shoelaces were found in the living room, on the bed, and one on top

of Marie's computer monitor. The string on the bed had been used to tie her hands, and the string on on the monitor was tied to a pair of underwear, which had been used as a makeshift gag. Marie's learner's permit to drive was on the windowsill, her wallet was on the bed, and her purse was on the living room floor. There was a knife next to the bed. It belonged to Marie, and it was the one the attacker had threatened her with. As the detectives made their way around the apartment, they found that the back door, the sliding glass door, was slightly open, and the railing on the deck, it led to had dirt that had been disturbed and made it look like someone had climbed over the deck. Marie told police that she thought her attacker had used a condom, but police

didn't find a condom or a condom wrapper anywhere in the apartment or outside of it. A canine tracking dog was brought in in an effort to try and figure out which direction the rapist had fled after the attack. The dog started to head south, but officers found nothing of importance along the route. Marie had noticeable bruising and abrasions on both of her wrists as well as vaginal bruising from the assault. Marie was being asked so many questions by the on-scene investigators. It all became a blur. She had to repeat the details of what she had to repeat the details of what she, she had gone through multiple times to different officers who asked her different questions about

the incident each time. Every time she told the story, it was like she was reliving the attack again. Sergeant Jeffrey Mason, the lead officer on Marie's case, had gained most of his experience from the narcotics division, and had only worked a couple rape cases before Marie's. The Linwood Police Department didn't have its own sex crimes unit, as there were hardly any sexual assaults in Linwood. In 2008, besides Marie's assault, there were only nine other reported sexual assaults in the city of 35,000 residents. Three days after Marie was attacked, she was asked by police to come to the station to follow up on the details of her rape.

That's when Marie would face an all-new attack. Once she was at the station, Detective Jerry Rittgarne, who had been a detective for four years, actually told 18-year-old Marie that her story didn't make sense. and it didn't line up with any of the evidence. He flat out told her that he thought she was lying about her assault. Rittgarne had talked to Jordan, who Marie had called after she was attacked. Jordan told police that Marie told him that she actually dialed his phone number using her toes. This was a different story than apparently she had told police during this follow-up questioning.

Marie began to stumble over her words. and some of the details of her assault. She couldn't believe what was happening. The police, the people tasked with helping her, were now accusing her of lying. The pressure got to be too much for Marie. And in an effort to just make it all stop, she told police that the assault hadn't happened.

At the request of investigators, Marie wrote a statement, recanting her previous statements about the assault, first stating that she could, could have just had a dream about the assault. Detective Rick Garn wasn't satisfied with the written statement from Marie. He asked her why she didn't write that she had lied about the assault and that she made it all up.

And finally, Marie reluctantly wrote that she had made the incident up and that there was no assault that she had lied. Marie's final statement read as follows. I have had a lot of stressful things going on and I wanted to hang out with someone and no one was able to. So I made up the story and didn't expect it to go as far as it did. I don't know why I couldn't have done something different. This was never meant to happen.

During the interaction with police that led to her written statement, no one had read Marie her rights. The reading of these rights would have officially warned Marie that her statement could and would be used against her in court. They also would have informed that she didn't have to say anything else to investigators without an attorney. And Morph, I don't know if authorities would normally read someone their rights in that situation.

As far as I know, she hadn't been charged, she hadn't been arrested or anything like that. And this statement to police from Marie would be used against her later on when she was, when she's charged for filing a false report. I think it's pretty infuriating that this person has just gone through this terrible experience and she's at the police department thinking she's going to get help and is blindsided finding out that not only is she not getting help, but they think she made the whole thing up. It takes a lot of courage for her to go through these details and go in there

and to go over them with the police and they just sort of discounted them and swept them aside and just said, we think you made this up. And I can't imagine what she was thinking and feeling in that moment. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, having never gone through something like this, I think the words can only imagine have to apply. But I don't think there's any doubt more if we've heard from numerous listeners who have gone through different types of experiences involving sexual assault and just how hard it is to actually talk about it, to relay all of the details.

You know, you're really kind of putting yourself out there in front of strangers, police officers, it cannot be an easy thing to do. So that's one part of it. And then to have these authorities come back and say, you know what, we don't believe you. What you're saying doesn't match up with the evidence. We think you're lying. I mean, I don't know.

I don't know how you deal with that. Now, what we see here in this case with Marie is that, I think at a certain point, morph, the pressure got to be too much. And she just wanted to get out of that police station, get out of that interview room, and she was going to do anything she had to do to make that happen. And I kind of think of it along the lines of some of the cases we've talked about where someone has made a false confession. It's a little different situation, but it ends up in a similar,

outcome, right? The pressure. The pressure builds and builds and builds. People are telling them, we don't believe you. We don't believe you. And eventually someone is willing to say something that is not true for the mere fact that they can't stand the pressure anymore and they have to get out of that room. The next day, after reflecting on what happened, Marie told an official at Project Ladder that she thought she needed a lawyer. She had regrets about writing the statement, saying that her attack never happened. The Project Ladder official called Sergeant Mason at the police department, and he told Project Ladder officials that there was no assault, that Marie had recanted her story. On August 18th, a week after she was attacked, Marie visited the police station again,

accompanied by a Project Ladder official. She wanted to take back her previous. She wanted to take back her previous statement and reaffirm what had happened to her. She told officers, including Rittgarne, that she really had been sexually assaulted, and she wanted to take a polygraph test to prove her innocence and that she had written that statement under duress. Detective Rittgarne told Marie that if she failed the polygraph test, she would go to jail. And if she went to jail, she could lose her housing assistance. This scared Marie.

and so she decided not to push for the polygraph. Police asked her in front of Project Ladder representatives if she had been sexually assaulted, and Marie said no. As a result of Marie telling the official she had lied, Project Ladder representatives told Marie that she had to admit to everyone else in the program that she had lied, or she'd no longer have subsidized housing. In what must have been humiliating for Marie, she told all of the other Project Ladder participants in a meeting

that there was no threat to worry about because she had lied and made the whole story up. This admission to her peers led to Marie feeling completely ostracized by them, and she considered taking her own life because of the stress and shame. She quit her job at Costco, and Project Ladder enforced a 9 p.m. curfew on her, as well as doubling the number of times she was required to meet with project officials. Marie tried to keep to herself, hoping that somehow the nightmare would end. It didn't. So, more of here we see that, you know, not only did she feel pressure by police in the very

beginning, the second time she went back. You know, she felt pressure because once the idea of a polygraph test came up, there were a lot of ramifications to failing that polygraph test. Do you want to take a chance on losing your housing assistance on whether or not police think you're telling the truth or a polygraph thinks you're telling the truth. They've already told you that we don't believe you. So once again, a lot of pressure causes her to kind of backpedal a little bit. Add on top of that the fact that, you know, so the police don't believe her. And then all of this causes her to, you know, have to be kind of humiliated in front of,

you know, the people that she lives with, the people in project. ladder. It's like a waterfall. It's like a domino effect. One thing leads to another. And it's like, you know, you're swimming upstream. How do you get control of it? Yeah, it seems like a really ugly situation. She's gone through the pain and humiliation at the hands of a rapist. Then she goes through this period of doubt with the police. You're calling her integrity into question, and then the officials force her to lay everything out in front of her peers. And I can't imagine how that must have made her feel having to go through all that, and all for the sake of not wanting to lose what she had and keep everything intact and remain in her apartment

because she was really making a lot of progress in her life. And with the threat of a failed lie detector test, she could lose all of that. So that must have been a load for her. Well, I can say this, knowing what we know about polygraph tests, would you really want to put a lot on the line for the sake of a polygraph test? I got to be honest with you, Morve, I wouldn't. I don't know how much I trust them. I'm not going to, I'm not going to bet my life, my freedom, things that I have in my life on the outcome of a polygraph. test. I just wouldn't do it.

There's a reason they're not admissible in court, and I think any attorney would advise someone not to take one, probably for reasons like that, because they could show something that's not accurate. So just a really bad situation for Marie. Marie was charged by the Linwood Police Department with filing a false police report, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. A headline in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer stated boldly. Police, Linwood Rape Report was a hoax. And things didn't get

easier for Marie. One of her former friends from high school created a website all about how Marie was a liar and on this side included photos of Marie and some unredacted police reports with her full name in them. Marie

was suffering terribly. Unable to sleep in her bedroom at night. Instead, she slept on the couch with the lights on. While Marie struggled with what she was enduring. She sometimes wondered if the man who had raped her would return. As it turned out, he was on the prow, looking for other victims, but this is something that wouldn't be connected to Marie's case for some time.

In October 2008, two months after Marie was attacked, a 63-year-old woman in Kirkland, Washington, just 20 miles from Linwood, told police that a man had broken into her apartment, threatened her with a knife, tied her up, and took pictures of her. She also reported that she had felt like she was being watched or followed for about two or three months before the assault. Despite the similarity between this woman's attack and the details of the assault Marie was charged with making up, the police didn't let up on Marie. She appeared in court in March 2009 to answer to the charges. The prosecution offered Maria a deal that would guarantee her no jail time,

if she would agree to receive mental health counseling, in connection with her lying to police. She'd also have to agree to supervise probation and pay $500 to cover court fees. Marie decided to accept this offer because she just wanted her ordeal to end. One person who Marie was close to when all this was going on was her former foster mom, Shannon McQuarrie. But even Shannon didn't believe Marie's story.

And that was perhaps one of the most difficult things through all of this for Marie. She really felt that no one believed her. After Shannon saw the news report about the attack in Kirkland, after Marie was attacked, she was absolutely shocked at how similar it was to Marie's supposedly fake assault. She had a gut feeling that she had been wrong to doubt Marie. And she immediately called the Kirkland police to alert them to Marie's assault and to tell them that these two cases had to be connected.

She also reached out to Marie and told her to contact. the Kirkland police as well, but Marie was too afraid. At this point, she had been through too much. She just wanted to put everything behind her. And I think more if you have to look at it and say, you know, how can you blame this girl after the incredible ordeal that she had gone through up to this point? Kirkland detectives did call the Linwood Police Department to see if their case might be connected to Marie's.

but they were told that Marie was not assaulted. She made everything up. According to a December 2015 article co-written by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong and co-published by ProPublica and the Marshall Project, Kirkland Detective Audra Weber was one of the detectives working the Kirkland case. She remembers calling the Linwood detectives twice. And both times being told they didn't believe Marriette. her account. She said, I just kind of trusted their judgment in terms of it's their case.

They know the details of it and I don't. She also recalled being kind of shocked to learn that they had charged Marie. She let it go. She hung up the phone thinking, okay, I hope that works out for you guys. Kirkland police went on searching for the perpetrator in their case, one that at this point hadn't been connected to Marie's assault. In October 2009, a 65-year-old woman in a rural Colorado, 1,300 miles southeast of Linwood, and 20 hours away, was sexually assaulted by a man in a mask who broke into her home, tied her up, and took photographs of her. He also threatened to post these photos online. As he fled, the woman defiantly told him to get help, and the attacker yelled, it's too late for that. The woman freed herself and called police, but her attacker had slipped away. Nine months later in July 2010, in Lakewood, Colorado, just a half an hour from Aurora,

a 46-year-old woman called police after a masked man broke in her apartment, threatened her with a knife, and tried to tie her wrist together. She got away through her bedroom window after she jumped down to the ground seven feet below and ran. Due to the fall, she ended up breaking three ribs and puncturing along. Police gathered evidence from the scene, including honeycomb-like marks, from what was suspected to be some kind of glove. The following month, in August 2010, in Westminster, Colorado, just about a 20-minute drive from Lakewood, a 59-year-old woman was sexually assaulted after a man in a black mask, broke into her home, tied her up, and took pictures of her. The man forced her to wear stockings in high heels. He also made her shower after he assaulted her setting a kitchen timer to let her know when she could come out of the bathroom.

He also warned her not to leave her windows open and to keep them locked in the future. He then stole her digital camera, which he had used to take pictures of her during the assault. Police found more honeycomb pattern marks along the window at this scene, and they were identified as a match to the Lakewood scene by detectives. Edna Hindershot. There was no doubt. They had a serial predator on the loose. Five months later, on January 5, 2011, a 26-year-old woman in Golden, Colorado, just 14 miles from Westminster, was sexually assaulted by a man in a mask who threatened her with a gun. The victim, an engineering student, was sleeping on her stomach when the man pinned her down, sitting on her back. He tied her

up and made her wear thigh-high stockings and high heels, put on makeup, and put her hair in her pigtails before he sexually assaulted her multiple times over a period of hours. He took photographs of her during the assault, and afterward made her shower and brush her teeth. While she was in the shower, the man fled. This time, he took the victim's sheets with him when he left. This victim would provide police with an important detail about her attacker. She was able to see that he had a dark, egg-sized birthmark on his left calf. She also recounted for investigators that strangely, as in the previous case, the rapist actually gave her advice on how to stop people from breaking into her home. By using a Dow to block the sliding glass door from opening, she had engaged

her assail in a bit, and he talked about bravos and wolves. The kind of people the world was made up of, according to him. She also told Detective Stacey Galbraith that she got the sense the man had done this before. Another clue she provided police with was that the rapist had used a pink Sony digital camera to take photos of her. The next day, Detective Stacey Galbraith emailed the Westminster Police Department, inquiring about similar cases to the January 5th attack in Golden. Detective Edna Henderson shot told her of the assaults in her jurisdiction and thought that they may be connected to the Aurora case.

As it turned out, a pink Sony digital camera had been stolen from the victim in Westminster. The assailants description and behaviors were similar. So the detectives quickly concluded they were hunting a dangerous serial predator who could strike again at any moment. Within a week, detectives Galbraith and Hindershot met with a war detective Scott Burgess to work on their cases jointly. The Lakewood assault attempt wasn't officially connected until later on because it had been labeled as a burglary, not a sexual assault. The burglar in this case also matched the description of the serial rapist who was working his way through that area of Colorado. Shoeprints from the Lakewood burglary matched the shoe prints from the sexual assaults. Detective Galbraith sent the print to a now-defunct website called Crime Shoe in order to have the prints analyzed.

The goal of the site was to assist with shoe identifications and crimes. The shoes were identified as being from Adidas ZX-700 mesh shoes, which were only available after March 2005. So, you know, at this point, the detectives had the rapist shoes identify, but even more importantly, they had his DNA, despite the fact that the attacker had taken steps to clean up after his attacks, you know, doing things like using wet wipes to clean up his ejaculate, forcing his victims to shower, and taking their clothing and bedding with him when he left. investigators were able to find three samples of touch DNA.

One sample was from a teddy bear. The attacker knocked over in Aurora. One was from the kitchen timer in Westminster. And the third was from the victim in Golden. Unfortunately, because there was not an ample amount of DNA. Any profile derived from this touch DNA could not be entered into any database like KOTUS. Hi, I'm Leni.

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For best seats at best prices, go to Shawfest.com. During a task force meeting discussing the cases, It was determined that an eyewitness had seen a suspicious white truck that had reportedly been parked illegally just half a block from the Lakewood crime scene, three weeks before the attack. The truck was parked near a field next to the Lakewood crime scene. When the truck was reported, there was a man sitting in the truck, but when officers arrived to check it out, the truck was gone. Detective Galbraith remembered seeing an identical pickup truck on security footage near the crime scene in Golden. The passenger side mirror was broken.

There was a ball hitch and smudges on the back. Not only could investigators see all these little details about the truck, more importantly, they saw its plate number. The truck determined to be a white 1993 Mazda was registered to 32-year-old army veteran Mark Patrick O'Leary. Detectives now had a suspect, but they had to connect the dots and build a case. Mark O'Leary had moved from Washington to Jefferson County, Colorado, in 2009, but he wasn't a sex offender.

In fact, he had no criminal history at all. Detectives researched him thoroughly and found that in 2008, he bought a pornography domain. This clicked with investigators who remembered his threats to put photos of the women he assaulted on the internet. On February 11, 2011, detectives tailed O'Leary trying to get a DNA sample to match to their DNA profile of the suspect. they knew it would never be a perfect match because the touch DNA was such a small sample and it had degraded over time. But they were certain. They would know if the offender was possibly O'Leary or someone related to him.

After O'Leary ate at a restaurant and left, detectives took the drinking glasses from the table, knowing that the rims would have DNA and the glasses themselves would have fingerprints. While O'Leary was eating at the restaurant, an FBI agent went to his home to install hidden surveillance cameras. The agent knocked on the door to make sure no one was home, and a man answered the door, and the FBI agent went into his practice speech, saying there was a burglar in the neighborhood, and that the homeowners needed to be alert. The man who answered the door spoke with the agent willingly and introduced himself as Morocco Leary. It turns out, his brother Michael was the one who had gone to the restaurant,

and detectives had actually gotten Michael O'Leary's DNA at the restaurant and not marks. Detectives didn't know that the brothers lived together or that they looked so much alike. The DNA on the cup contributed by Michael O'Leary was useful because it did closely match the DNA taken from the crime scenes, proving that a male in the O'Leary family was responsible for the series of rapes. Detective Galbraith used Michael's father's age and location. to rule him out. But they couldn't rule out either Mark or Michael. A search warrant that would allow agents to enter the home was written and it was signed by a judge at 10 p.m. on a Saturday night. On February 13th, 2011, Detective Galbraith knocked on the O'Leary Brothers door and when Mark answered,

she patted him down, taking the opportunity to lift up the leg of his pants and the unique egg-shaped birth mark was there. Detectives arrested O'Leary for burglary and assault. A search of his home revealed vital evidence. They found a pair of underarmored gloves with a honeycomb pattern on the palms, a black head wrap matching the description of the mask worn, and shoes that matched the shoe prints from the crime scenes in Golden and Lakewood, Colorado, a pair of Adidas Z-X-700.

O'Leary was hauled off to jail and a $5 million cash bond was set. After O'Leary was in custody, his computer was searched forensically. There were encrypted files on his hard drive, but a specialist was able to retrieve the contents. There was a folder containing images of all the victims that the detectives knew about, over 400 photos of his victims during their assaults, as well as one more victim they weren't familiar with. She was younger than the rest of the victims, and was photographed gagged, and bound on a bed. In the photo, police could see her learner's permit, so detectives immediately knew her name. That victim was, of course, Marie, who had been attacked in Loonwood, Washington,

in August 2008, the same victim who was doubted by police and shamefully made to look like a liar. What was done to intimidate Marie, taking nude photos of her, with her personal information visible in the photos, is what would actually help to prove she had been telling the truth all along. Mark O'Leary first told the authorities that he was innocent, but he soon had a change of heart, and he came clean. O'Leary actually admitted to investigators that he was aware that because he was in the army, they had his DNA. And that's why he was so careful not to leave any of his DNA at the crime scenes.

This is why he took so many precautions, like making women shower and taking their bedside. He was also aware that different police departments didn't always communicate with each other. So he began trying to strike in different jurisdictions to make it harder for police to realize that one person was responsible for all of these different attacks. And more if I think this is something that you and I see in a lot of cases. It's true. You know, police departments don't always share information, you know, historically. some have even been reticent to do so.

And so now you have a serial rapist actually coming out and admitting the fact that they were aware of this. And so they purposefully went to different jurisdictions to try to keep from having all of these attacks linked. Yeah, I think this is where there are shades of the Easterer rapists because he struck in so many different towns and cities, they had a hard time connecting the dots at first, and it seems that this guy was the same, and he sort of knew to do the same thing. And not just that, but other similarities were that he had this routine, this MO, and this same sort of speech to everyone. And his M.O. was to get them tied up, get them bound, get them secured, and then take photos of them. And it is very specific. And that's what helped connect all the dots as well.

But, you know, a lot of times we think of criminals as being not all that smart. But, but obviously, we know that's not the case. Some of these people are smart. They have a great deal of intelligence. You know, here's a, here's a guy who later admitted, he knew that the authorities would have his DNA from his time in the military. So he set out to take all of these different precautions to try to limit or eliminate him leaving any DNA behind. There's a lot of calculation here. There's a lot of planning that went into all of his crimes.

I think a lot of that takes a fair degree of intelligence. And I think we've covered a lot of cases where stuff has done spur of the moment and suddenly without much thought. But I think it's definitely clear that a lot of thought and planning went into this guy's attacks. In March 2011, weeks after O'Leary was arrested, Marie was contacted by the Linwood Police Department. She was living south of Seattle when they found her. They broke the news to her that the man who had sexually assaulted her, had been arrested in Colorado. They also gave her an envelope containing information and resources on counseling for victims of sexual assault, as well as 500 hours, the amount she had to pay for

court cost in her false report case. Marie was also informed that her record would be expunged, and she would no longer have any criminal history. What she didn't get was an apology or an explanation as to why she was doubted in the first place. Marie ended up asking for an apology from the lead detective on her case. And he did apologize for everything she was put through because of him. But in the end, it felt hollow to Marie, and it didn't make her feel much better. So, you know, I think when you break that down, Morp, okay, they repaid her court costs. They expunged her record.

Well, she shouldn't have had any of that in the first place. So great, you're correcting all that. I know the police aren't real big on giving apology. you know, an apology is an admission of guilt in some ways. Or I think that's what the authorities oftentimes look at it as. And, you know, they're probably counseled by the attorneys for the city or whoever not to do that. I get all of that. But I also get why none of this would really make Marie feel all that much better.

because really what happened. They reversed things that should have never happened. She didn't get the one thing that I think she was really wanting for someone to come out and say, you know, we're sorry. We're sorry that we doubted you. We're sorry that, you know, we put you through this and that we just didn't take what you were saying to us as the truth. Yeah, I think it's definitely clear that the police failed, Marie, and what's,

she went through was terrible, but one thing we really haven't talked about was had they taken her seriously from the beginning and fully investigated the case and didn't have rushed to a conclusion, perhaps they might have found the man that did this, arrested him, and kept future victims from being attacked. We don't know that they definitely would have caught him, but it eliminated that possibility as soon as they locked in on remaking up this story. And I think that's a a great point. There's no guarantee that they would have caught him, but the possibility would have been there. That possibility goes away. Once you doubt a victim's statement, you dismiss it, and there's so much pressure that they end up recanting it altogether. Well, then there is no

investigation, right? Because at that point, there's no crime from the viewpoint of police. I guess what really gets to me, Morph, is why the urgency to, you know, say that, hey, the things that you're saying don't match up, we don't believe you. What's the harm in taking someone's statement at face value and putting a little effort into investigating those claims? It just seems like they came out so quickly and we're against her from, you know, pretty much the beginning. I don't get it. Yeah, I can see that if after a long investigation and with lots of things not lining up, lots of physical evidence contradicting what Marie had said,

maybe coming to that conclusion eventually based on the evidence and everything in the case. But the rush to judgment just seems like they cut off any attempt. at a full-scale investigation, and we just don't know where that would have let. In October 2011, Marco Leary pleaded guilty to 28 counts of rape and related felony charges in Colorado. These charges included stalking and kidnapping. He received a sentence of 327 and a half years in prison on October 9th. At his sentencing hearing, he stated, I am a sexually violent predator.

and I'm out of control. He even said that if someone did this to someone I knew or loved, I would want to kill them. And finally, he said of those he victimized, I can only hope that my sentence today will satisfy them as far as closure is concerned and moving on with their lives. Marco Leary is serving his time at Sterling Correctional Facility and will likely never see the outside of the prison again.

in June 2012. O'Leary was sentenced to 40 years for the sexual assault in Kirkland, Washington, and another 28 and a half for his sexual assault of Marie. So I said most likely he'll never see the outside of prison again. Mor, if this is a man who should never, ever walk to streets again. I mean, that's my take on this guy. He is an evil, evil individual. I think it was clear that he was one of the most dangerous types of predators out there. Again, referencing someone like the East Area Rapist,

I think this guy, Markleary, might have gone on to that kind of victim total because there just seemed to be no slowing down as long as he was free. I think he would have continued to do this. And like the East Area Rapist, I personally think it would have been a matter of time before he went from rapist to murder because someone might have stood up to him or tried to defend themselves, and then all of a sudden, a rape is becoming a murder. I think it's very possible he could have been a serial killer in addition to being a serial rapist.

I agree with you 100%. You know, we've talked about it before, but I don't think it can be over-emphasized. These predators, whether we're talking about serial rapists or serial murderers or people, that, you know, commit a combination of those crimes, they get something, right? They derive something out of the crimes that they commit and that something fuels them to continue to want to commit those types of crimes. For the most part, there's no stopping it because, you know, like a drug, these people want to get that feeling again and again and again. So why would, you? Why would would they stop on their own?

I think very, very few do. And like you said, I think it's an easy assumption to make that O'Leary over time would have, I'll use the word graduate, even though it's probably not the best word to use, graduate into serial murder. Because we do see that, right? Whatever these people get from the crimes they commit at a certain. point may not satisfy them the way that it did in the beginning. So things get ratcheted up. Their crimes become even more bizarre, even more heinous. And, you know, sometimes that then evolves into

committing murders because they need something that is going to give them that same feeling. It's sickening, but we know it happens. Marie was finally vindicated and the man who brutally raped her was in prison, but she realized that what happened to her at the hands of the police was a horrible misjustice. In January 2014, Marie sued the city of Linwood, Washington on the grounds that detectives in her case had disregarded evidence of the assault, bullied her into saying it didn't happen, and then threatened to have her thrown out of her apartment when she insisted it did. The city of Linwood settled with Marie for a total of $150,000. And to be honest with you, Morf, I would say that's light. For what this woman went through, I would say she's probably entitled to more. But I get it.

That's what they came to. It's really hard to put a dollar figure, I think, a lot of times on pain, anguish, humiliation. What's the formula? You know, how do you come up with a, with a figure that is going to represent everything on every level that a person like Marie went through over about a three year period? I'm sure it was an agonizing ordeal. So to say, hey, no apology, but here's $150,000. It's not going to make up for it.

I can tell you that right now. Yeah. And I'm sure that Marie, if she was able to, would pay any kind of money in the world not to have had that all happened to her. While Marie was trying to move on with the next chapter in her life, authorities wanted to find out what made Marco Leary tick. And to maybe find things in his history that might help them stop the next person like him that they might one day have to deal with. Marco Leary viewed the world breaking people down into two types, alphas or wolves and bravos or sheep. In his mind, he was, of course, an alpha, a wolf, entitled to sexual intercourse with whomever he wanted. Whenever he wanted, his attacks were clearly about fear and power.

But Mark seemingly had a normal life. He dated. He wasn't celibate. Apparently, he was never shunned. His former girlfriend, Amy Wozni, told 48 hours that when she heard of what he had been doing to other women, she vomited. And, you know, here's a little glimpse, right, into the window of what people connected to these predators go through. You know, here's a woman who dated this guy in the past to find out, later. I don't know how many years later, but to find out later that he was this vicious sexual

predator, what does that have to do to her? Does that make someone question the decisions in their life? Right. How did I not know that this guy was a sexual predator? I'm not trying to disparage her at all. I'm just trying to figure out what some of these people go through. They didn't have anything to do with the crimes. They didn't do anything wrong. But let's say they had a relationship at one point in their life with this person. That can't be easy to square. You know, you think back about maybe the good times that you had with this person and then try to square that with the monster that you find out that they begin.

came very tough and i think you can see that from the statement that she vomited when when she found out that's how sick it made her yeah i think it goes to show too that people like marco leary have a way of hiding things from people close to them so that they don't know what kind of monster they are you know isn't it fascinating how some serial killers serial predators are able to do that you know they, it's like they lead multiple lives. They have different faces, different personas, one that they show that is, okay, on the surface, pretty good. You know, that's where you have neighbors coming forward and saying, I would have never thought

that so and so my neighbor would have done all of these things. We hear that in tons and tons of cases. And then, you know, there's obviously the side that they don't show to the outside world that is devious, calculating, manipulative, and sadistic. Yeah, and sort of an interesting contrast to all of that, the brutality of what he did was this other side of him where he's trying to comfort some of these victims and tell them how they can protect themselves in the future and giving them tips on keeping their home. safe. It's just very bizarre from him as to why he would do that. Well, that's what I call the good guy syndrome. I have victimized you, but hey, I'm a good guy. I'm comforting you now. And I'm telling you how to prevent yourself from being victimized in the future. I mean, how strange is that? That somebody thinks that that is a reasonable interaction to have with someone after you have completely violated them

to sit down and have a talk as though you're a big brother or a father figure trying to help them out and give them life tips, life lessons. But, you know, we can't figure out what goes through these people's minds. Yeah, it makes me wonder if some small part of them feels some kind of shame or guilt for what they've done. They're trying to tone by being helpful and protective of their victim going forward. I think there might be a part of that in some of these individuals. Now, I think some are so sociopathic that they have no empathy whatsoever.

I think there's probably a spectrum there. Marie is now a long-haul truck driver, and she's married with two children. She no longer lives in Washington. She enjoys hiking, photography, and the beach. According to writer Ken Armstrong, Marie didn't want to live in fear, and she didn't want to let this experience limit her in how she went about the rest of her life. As the pro-publica article, an unbelievable story of rape, lays out, rape cases are unlike most other crimes.

The credibility of the victim is all. often on trial as much as the Guild of the Accused. T. Christian Miller of ProPublica was working on cases involving law enforcement failures in identifying rapist, and Ken Armstrong of the Marshall Project was working on a similar story. So the two teamed up with Armstrong investigating Marie's case in Washington and Miller investigating the cases in Colorado. Their collaborative work introduced the world to Marie's tragic story. The 2019 Netflix drama miniseries, unbelievable. is based on the writing project by Miller and Armstrong.

The miniseries was released on September 13th, and by the end of the month, it had been viewed 32 million times. I can't recommend the miniseries unbelievable enough. It's well done, and it really paints a picture of just how Marie was failed by those who should have helped her. It also demonstrates just how much Marco Leary was like Easterer rapist Joseph DiAngelo in many ways. He had a script, a specific MO, and he rarely deviated from it. He attempted to cover his tracks and avoid detection. Thankfully, Mark O'Leary was stopped.

If you watch his show, be prepared to be angry afterwards. Did you watch it, Mike? Yeah, I did watch this. I watched this with my wife. You know, this was one morph that really upset me. As, you know, my wife and I were going through the series, I was angry. As you said, prepared to be angry. And I think that's absolutely accurate.

it, I was angry going through it, trying to put myself in the position of Marie in thinking, you know, that I just felt so bad for her and what she went through. There's a newer show out right now on Netflix. It's called May. And I just started watching it with my wife. And it's about a young woman trying to escape an abusive relationship and really kind of how the system is letting her down. it's not set up to help her a much different situation but the feeling was very similar like i was

enraged at parts of both of these shows as i'm watching what unfolded and and what these women went through now the difference is what we're talking about here was real it really happened the other one i think is a is a fictional show but it still evokes those emotions and i think those are very very important emotions. You know, speaking as two men doing a podcast, I think it's important for us to have those emotions. We should be angry at what these women went through, especially Marie. I mean, to me, it's just absolutely wrong and it never needed to happen. I think that's the thing that really jumps out at me. There was no reason whatsoever for it to ever go down that way. Why would you not believe a woman who comes in and says, I've been sexually assaulted?

Now, could somebody make a false report? Absolutely. It could happen. But wouldn't you want to err on the side that a woman is telling the truth when it comes to the subject of sexual assault? I absolutely don't understand the thinking in this case. Yeah. It makes no sense when they should err on the side of caution, assume that it actually happened until they proved that it didn't happen.

And I think you and I as husbands and fathers, God forbid something like this to happen to one of the women in our family, our wives or daughters, and they went to the police and were met with this kind of disbelief. How would we feel? How would what would we go through as someone, that would like to protect our family and you're helpless because the police that are there to help you don't believe you. That's got to be an awful feeling. And for the most part,

Marie didn't have anyone supporting her. She went through all of this by herself. Yeah, you're right. See, Marie didn't have someone to stand up for her. You know, if this happened to someone in our lives, I have the feeling that we'd be at the police station and we would not accept an officer telling our wives, our daughters, whoever it may be in our family, hey, we don't believe you. I'm going to raise some hell, man. I got to be honest with you about that. Part of the reason why I felt so bad for Marie was because she had no advocate. She had no one to stand up for her. And, you know, that's tough for a young woman to deal with the amount of pressure she was under. And I really do think more if it was that pressure put on by police coming

at her, you know, saying, we don't believe you. We think you're lying. That ultimately caused her to crumble. She just couldn't stand up to it. And, you know, let's not forget. This was an 18 year old woman, girl. To me, she was a girl. You know, I get it. At 18 years old, you're technically an adult, but was she equipped to handle that pressure? I don't know many 18-year-olds that are. So, Morph, I do think it's an extremely sad story, but there are a lot of takeaways from it. I think there are a lot of learning points that can be derived from this story, especially on the part of police. We've got to do better as a society. I don't think there's any doubt about that. And from the sounds of things, Marie is doing well today.

She has a family of her own, a career. So hopefully she was able to overcome all of this and is doing well. Obviously, we don't know her. She hasn't come out publicly and revealed her identity. But wherever she is, hopefully she is doing well. Yeah, I echo those sentiments as well. Thanks goes out to Sunny Landon for writing and research assistants in this episode. As always, if you love the show, but you haven't.

done so yet. Take just a minute. Go out, give us a five-star rating. Also, keep telling your friends who are into true crime about the podcast. That word of mouth really goes a long way. If you want to find us on social media, we're on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Criminology Podcast or by joining our Facebook discussion group, criminology podcast discussion and fans. So more of that is it for our episode on Mark O'Leary and another episode of criminology. But we'll be back with everyone next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then for Mike. And more of. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone. One of the biggest decisions for a new parent is who you trust with your

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