Ep. 093 | Unbelievable: The Rape of Marie Adler
In August 2008, 18-year-old Marie Adler called 911 in terror, reporting that a masked man had broken into her Lynnwood, Washington apartment, bound her with her own shoelaces, and raped her for hours. At first, police treated the case as a serious violent assault, but as the days passed their focus shifted from finding a suspect to scrutinizing Marie herself.
They fixated on minor inconsistencies in her account and on her “flat” emotional response, interpreting her trauma through suspicion rather than understanding. Doubt deepened after one of Marie’s former foster mothers contacted police to suggest she might be lying, and detectives began pressing Marie relentlessly, re-interviewing her again and again until she finally broke and wrote a statement admitting that she had made the whole thing up.
Marie was charged with filing a false police report, publicly branded a liar, and left to carry the consequences alone while police closed the case.
Nearly two years later, a serial rapist was arrested in another state, and in his possession investigators found photographs of a young girl being assaulted. She was bound, naked, and had her own photo ID placed on her chest. That ID belonged to Marie Adler, who had been telling the truth the whole time. This is the unbelievable story of a young girl victimized twice. First, by a brutal rapist, and second, by police.
A special note to the first source below, this episode would not have been possible without the breaking story written by Armstrong and Miller: An unbelievable story of rape.
SOURCES:
Armstrong, K., & Miller, T. C. (2015, December 16). An unbelievable story of rape. ProPublica and The Marshall Project. https://www.propublica.org/article/false-rape-accusations-an-unbelievable-story
Butler, B. (2019, September 17). The true story behind “Unbelievable,” Netflix’s gripping new drama about the women who solved a serial rape case. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2019/09/17/unbelievable-true-story-behind-netflixs-gripping-new-drama-about-women-who-solved-serial-rape-case/
Rape victim in Lynnwood settles claim against city. (2014, June 12). The Seattle Times. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/lynnwood-to-pay-rape-victim-150000-in-false-claim-suit/
“Unbelievable” rape case aftermath: Failure helped change police practices. (2018, February 9). CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/unbelievable-netflix-rape-case-what-happened-marie/
Wanshel, E. (2019, September 16). The real Marie Adler of Netflix’s Unbelievable got a $150,000 settlement and an apology. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/netflix-unbelievable-marie-adler-real_n_5d7f1760e4b077dcbd5a3278
