Outlandish Extra: Oubliette

In this episode, we take a step back in time to the week Cathy Thomas and Becky Dowski were murdered in the first of several Colonial Parkway murders.

As the crime scene tape still hangs from Becky Dowski’s doorway at William & Mary College, another headline hits the student paper: Three men are being charged in the campus gang rape of another student.  

Our guest for this episode was directly involved in that incident, and she helps us use it as a lens through which we can examine some failures of response to sexual assault -- some of which are still problems today.

We also examine an astounding survey of college students published the year before the incidents at William & Mary, which suggested more than 25% of college women have experience rape or attempted rape since the age of 14.

Description/Notes:

To best understand the context of this episode, be sure to listen to Season 3 Episode 4, Exploring Substantial Similarities.  In that episode, we speak with Bill Thomas, leading authority on the Colonial Parkway murders and brother of Cathy Thomas. 

If you decide to go down the Colonial Parkway rabbit hole, make sure to check out Bill's podcast covering every aspect of the cases, Mind Over Murder. You can also check out the Oxygen series titled "The Lover's Lane Murders", for which Bill served as a consulting producer.

If you're interested in learning more about sexual assault on campus, you can check out the RAINN statistics page on campus sexual violence. The website also has an anonymous live chat and a help line number if you need to talk with someone.

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