This Datebook is darker than usual, but history is not always a happy story. So a warning: The topic of this Dakota Datebook could be distressing for some listeners.
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On September 13th, 1993, a woman named Sarah was raped in her condominium in Boulder, Colorado. The complex was called Tantra Lake. She managed to call 911 that night and get a full sexual assault examination. Sadly, it would take 11 years to find her assailant and in that time, he would go on to rape four other women at the Tantra Lake complex between 1993 and 1998. He became known as the “Tantra Rapist.”
Police tried multiple tactics to crack the case, even going so far as to have female officers rent apartments in an attempt to lure him. In 1998, they finally got a break when they uploaded the rapist’s DNA profile to a national database. It matched the profile of a 1994 rape case in Lakewood, Colorado, and a 1995 case in Austin, Texas. This allowed investigators to narrow the focus to a white male who had lived in Boulder, Lakewood, and Austin. From there, they developed a list using drivers license records. This yielded tens of thousands of results, but applying physical attributes known about the rapist, they whittled the list down to 120 people. One man stood out: Bradford Wagner.
Wagner was born in Bismarck on this date in 1968. Eighteen years later, in 1986, he was arrested in Bismarck on suspicion of breaking into a steakhouse. He was also stopped while roaming a hotel in Bismarck. Hotel staff believed he was casing rooms, to see if someone left a door ajar.
Investigators confirmed that Wagner had lived in all the cities connected to the sexual assaults. Interviews with two previous girlfriends also confirmed he was a smoker, a detail known about the rapist; and he had also stalked the former girlfriends after they broke up.
An undercover officer collected Wagner’s DNA by going to his real estate office and posing as a client. His DNA matched the rapist, and in 2004, officers arrested Wagner. He would never see trial because he committed suicide in his cell.
It is important to note that 90% of rape victims know their assailant. So while this type of story might get national attention, it's not very common.
Dakota Datebook written by Lucid Thomas
Sources:
https://www.postindependent.com/news/local-man-faces-rape-charges-in-boulder/
https://www.aspentimes.com/news/wagner-hangs-himself-in-boulder-jail/
https://www.policemag.com/339586/closing-the-tantra-lake-rape-case
