I don't have any brushes with murderers (besides from when I used to volunteer at a prison...but that's another story), but I do have a brush with a probable rapist.
There was a guy that I knew from grad school. My friends and I would run into him all the time at this one bar and we all became friendly. He chatted me up about my studies and we agreed to meet for coffee a few times to study together. He even came to my house once for a party. The consensus among my friends about him was "harmless dork." There was nothing romantic between us...he was a nice guy, but I kind of found him annoying and I didn't really think about him much.
One day I was listening to the radio and I heard his name. He had been arrested for breaking into an ex-girlfriend's apartment and setting up video equipment in her bedroom to spy on her. It turns out that he had like HUNDREDS of videos of ex-girlfriends, many of them non-consensual videos. He was eventually convicted of of spying on these women (or at least the ones that lived in-state...he had moved from out of state a few years before). He got probation.
Here's the REALLY scary part: amongst all these videos, they found a video of him having sex with an unidentified woman who was bound up and upset and he was threatening her with a knife. The police, as far as I know were not able to identify the woman. He claimed that it was just "role playing," but the police don't believe him. Because the woman hasn't come forward, they haven't been able to bring charges.
You guys, I HAD THIS GUY IN MY HOUSE. You just never know what's going on in people's heads or behind closed doors. There are people out there who are very disturbed and are very good at hiding it.
P.S. This guy was studying online dating for his graduate degree. He taught a few classes at the local community college on how to successfully set up an online dating profile. He even offered to help me set one up (I declined). No doubt he used this tactic to prey on women.
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