Jane Doe No More
My 15-Year Fight to Reclaim My Identity--A True Story of Survival, Hope, and Redemption
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- $23.99
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- $23.99
Publisher Description
In 1993, Donna Palomba was raped by a masked assailant in her own home. Yet, her story is more than a victim’s tale of physical and emotional recovery. It is a story of one woman’s hunt for justice while fending off attacks by institutions designed to defend and protect her—the police department, the local government, and a community clinging to an outrageous claim that Donna had invented the crime to cover up a sexual affair.
From the night of the attack, the botched crime scene investigation, and the abuse as authorities attempted to close the case by discrediting her, Donna was left as a victim with no name and no identity. Meanwhile, there was one courageous detective, later to become chief of police, who broke a cops’ code of silence in the name of justice. As they fought on, a legal battle ensued after the Waterbury Police Department—now with media support—refused to let go of its allegations against her and admit wrongdoing. Finally, after eleven years of struggle, Donna learned the identity of her attacker from the chief of police, who explained that the DNA from the rape kit taken a decade ago had turned up a shocking match.
In 2007, Donna Palomba was the subject of a special two-hour Dateline episode about her case. Suddenly, she was Jane Doe no more, launching the Jane Doe No More organization and becoming a promoter of the rights of women and victims of sexual assault. With the help of crime investigator and author M. William Phelps, this is her story.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Phelps (I'll Be Watching You) traces the nightmarish series of events Palomba endured after she was raped in 1993. A successful ad agency marketing executive, Palomba was bound, gagged, and sexually assaulted in her Waterbury, Conn., home while her husband was out of town. Uninterested police, however, regarded her story as a coverup of adultery: "The red flag, according to officers later, was no evidence of forced entrance into Donna's house." She was threatened with arrest and local gossips spread the false rumor of an extramarital affair: "old ladies, sitting around killing time, talking about a rumor... were now driving the investigation." An arduous yet successful lawsuit against the city of Waterbury followed, leading to Palomba's 2007 launch of the Jane Doe No More Foundation to "improve the way society responds to victims of sexual assault" and her subsequent appearance in a highly rated episode of Dateline NBC. Suspense builds as seasoned investigative journalist Phelps works through police reports, trial transcripts, depositions, diaries, e-mails, and extensive interviews, inserting Palomba's first-person accounts throughout until the chilling truth about her assailant is finally discovered. 19 b&w photos.
