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Colorado Woman Unwittingly Moves in With Her Rapist Years After Violent Attack

Amber Smith lived through something more horrific than most could even imagine. After being violently raped, strangled, and beaten, she was left for dead in a Fort Collins park in August 2013 by an unknown attacker, according to Dateline: Unforgettable. The attacker’s DNA was found on her body and on the red duct tape he used to bind her head, arms, and feet — but police couldn’t link it to a suspect. In the months that would follow, a terrified Amber was afraid to go out of her home and was sus

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Stefan Moon is Convicted of Sexually Assaulting Amber Smith

Stefan Moon is Convicted of Sexually Assaulting Amber Smith
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Fort-collins , Colorado , United-states , Amber-smith , Aric-vanagunas , Dane-stratton , Keith-morrison , Siobhan-seymour , Morrison , Colorado-department-of-corrections , Correspondent-keith-morrison , Rossborough-park

Dateline

happened? >> i would have an anxiety attack. just like the overwhelming sense of doom. >> reporter: kirsty agular saw her once happy friend turned into someone she barely recognized. >> she became isolated and she was very self conscious about everything and everybody that she was around. she was completely broken and shattered from what had happened to her. >> reporter: and then, in 2015, a whole group, in a way, came to amber's rescue. how spacewalk invited her to live here with them in this safe space among friends, in a good neighborhood. good situation? >> it was fine. >> reporter: they feel safe? >> it did feel safe. >> reporter: it's a new family dynamic, isn't it, a bunch of friends, living together? like the tv show, frankly.

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Dateline

amber smith had overcome her worst fears and confronted her friend sam moon. >> reporter: amber smith had the dna said he had to be the man who attacked her. overcome her worst fears, and confronted her friend sam moon. the dna said he had to be the man who attacked her. and yet, back at the police station, as she pressed sam for answers, he said something top of her off-guard. >> yeah, we had sex. i didn't hurt you. we had sex. >> we had sex at rosboro park? >> reporter: roxborough park, remember? that was the place amber had been drinking with a different friend. >> you were giving out free [bleep] >> sam insisted he responded to a personal ad on

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Dateline

millions of profiles in the code is database. none of the match the dna recovered from amber, or the duck tape. and when they compared to the sample they collected from amber's friend, aric vanagunas, it didn't match him either. he didn't do it. so, who? a crime like this one, has an earmark of a practice predator. why was in his dna on the massive cote's system? >> i felt sick. i felt like how could this be? we don't have a suspect. how do we not have a suspect? like who is this guy, where is he, is he dead? >> reporter: usually there somebody you can look at? >> yes, but all the somebodies were nobodies. >> reporter: dain stratton, the patrol cop haunted by what happened to amber, by what he saw in the park, was sure that

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Dateline

going to be the person to tell the whole world about a story like yours, it wouldn't be you? >> probably not, no. >> reporter: but here you are. >> here i am. >> reporter: and so, she began. in a way, embarrassed about going drinking with her friend, aric vanagunas. >> i became and talks a gated. >> reporter: you polish off a bottle? >> yes. >> reporter: were you aware? what happened? >> i don't know, the last thing i remember was i was using his phone to listen to music, we were listening to music, drinking, and we were sitting at the park bench. and then, that's all i recall of that part. >> reporter: must of blacked out? >> yes. i drink too much. >> reporter: amber passed out, at an outdoor picnic table, for how long? she doesn't know. and what do you remember next? >> i remember waking up on my

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Dateline

people extracted what evidence they could. >> we did a sex assault examination on her, she was processed forensically for dna. her hands were processed, her face was, her neck. any area that we believe the suspect may have come into contact with was examined. >> reporter: the attacker had left his semen behind. and, may be, touched dna. they swab every inch of that red duck tape. as investigators tried to fathom the motive. >> the brutality of this was unlike anything that i had heard about. why would you attack somebody and brutalized them to such a degree if you didn't know them, or have a grudge against them? this didn't seem like a stranger thing to me. >> reporter: and detective seymour knew there was one person she needed to get a look at right away. the last person amber remembered being with, her friend, aric vanagunas.

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Dateline

hospital -- >> reporter: ilias so no one could find you. >> yes, i was scared everywhere, if somebody looked at me for longer than a few seconds i would get suspicious. >> reporter: this is more than just fear, isn't it? >> yes, i definitely thought he was still lurking, still trying to find me. >> reporter: but, who? it was a face in a crowd watching her, coming for her? was it a stranger? a friend? as she round her test, the crime lab melissa was optimistic that a solid dna profile would emerge. and solve the mystery quickly. >> we expected that it would either hit to other cases or to an offender in the database. >> reporter: or of course to the last person amber remembered being with, aric vanagunas. he swore he didn't hurt her. dna would tell the truth. >> reporter: coming up -- the lab results come in. a gut punch for everyone. >> we were shocked.

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Dateline

detective seymour got a warrant, tracked his name and address. aric was 20 something, lived with his parents, but he wasn't home. >> his mother was there and she said that he usually volunteers at the church. so, a partner of mine and i went to the church to contact him there. >> the case that i am working right now is involving amber smith. >> yes, like i picked her up and then we're hanging out. >> i think he was surprised that we were there, but he also knew, i believe at that point in time that something had happened to amber because he was in connection with other people that she knew. >> and you didn't know at that point whether was guilty knowledge because he did it, or if he just knew? >> correct. >> reporter: aric echoed embers story, drinking in the park, having won too many. amber falling asleep. >> so i try to wake her up.

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Dateline

but she wouldn't wake up. >> reporter: so aric claimed he left it there, asleep, drove around but then got worried about her. >> i came back and she, she just seemed fine. so i thought that it would be okay like, i left her there. i didn't feel too good about it. >> reporter: so, said aric, he went home. >> i think he was surprised that it had happened, certainly, it made him look like a very bad friend. >> reporter: yes. >> that he left her in that condition. >> reporter: in his interview, did he seem to be forthcoming? >> he did. >> reporter: did you ask him if he had sex with her? >> i asked him if he had an intimate relationship with her, he said no, so there would be no reason for his dna to be on the swabs were recovered. >> reporter: unless he assaulted her when she wasn't aware of what was going on? >> correct, yes. >> reporter: aric did agree to provide a sample of his dna. which detective seymour got to

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