that she had been raped several years before. Unbeknownst to Maureen, the colleague sold the story to The Globe, a supermarket tabloid, which pub- lished a story filled with inaccuracies. Maureen, who had always intended to keep the rape private, was devastated.


In 1992, when People Magazine ap- proached Maureen to tell her story, she declined, but after the manage- ment at Fox encouraged her to do the interview so the public would know the truth, she agreed.


Maureen revealed that in April 1986, when she was a morning news an- chor in Macon, Georgia, a man broke into her apartment, held her hostage, raped her repeatedly and threatened to kill her. He had been sneaking in and out of her apartment for over a year before the attack. Maureen would come home from work and notice things out of place, but when she mentioned it to people, they told her she was probably just over tired.


Ironically, a few weeks before the rape Maureen started volunteering for a hotline that helped latch key kids and survivors of rape. The women she talked to who had been raped said that they wished they could remem- ber more about the rapist. Somehow, while Maureen was experiencing this


34 Connect And Grow With Women In Our Community


horrific ordeal, she made a decision that she was going to remember ev- erything that was happening to her. Although terrified, she started asking her attacker a barrage of questions:


Why was he doing this? Why did he want to be an evil person? Didn’t he realize he was going to get caught? Even though he put a pillow case over her head, she carefully “recorded” in her mind everything she could about him. After 5-1/2 hours, the man left the apartment and she called for help.


Maureen gave the authorities an 18- page, single spaced, typed report of the assault. Her mother, who had recently gotten a criminal justice de- gree, helped her unravel the crime. Details that Maureen gathered during the attack were pivotal in arresting and convicting the man. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison.


Maureen says she identifies strongly with other survivors such as POWs, and hostages, who often describe that they felt a sense of deep calm in their souls even as violence was being done to their bodies. Maureen says that during the attack she felt as if she were being cradled by her Higher Power and held above everything that was happening to her. In the midst of horror, her faith was strengthened.


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