Orlando rape victim’s nightmare may finally end

Reporting from Orlando, Fla. — 

For nearly two decades, Mary lived with the overwhelming fear that her knife-wielding rapist would return. Some nights, she slept in a bedroom closet. Other times, she sat in bed gripping a gun, with the rapist’s threat echoing through her sleepless mind:

“If you call the police, I will come back to kill you.”

But she did call -- and then called back, year after year. The recurring answer filled her with dread. No arrests. No suspects.

Finally, advanced DNA testing identified a suspect: George W. Girtman, already behind bars for a series of Orlando rapes in the 1980s and 1990s. But unless authorities can convict Girtman of another rape, he’ll go free in September 2011.

Mary -- a pseudonym to protect her identity -- is determined to keep him behind bars, even if it means reliving her nightmare.

The rapist began terrorizing Orlando in summer 1985. A 12-year-old girl was pulled from her bed and attacked in her backyard. A woman was raped in front of her daughter.

As many as 100 rapes in about six years were linked to the so-called Malibu rapist, named for a subdivision where the attacks began. Single women in their late 20s and early 30s who lived alone or with young children were targeted, police said.

Mary lived alone and was in her 30s. It was about 3 a.m. on Easter weekend in 1990, she said in a recent interview. She was drifting off to sleep when she heard a loud noise.

“Johnny?” she called out, thinking her brother had arrived for the holiday. Then, she said, “Something came down on my face, and a knife [came] to my throat.”

The attacker tied her up with a scarf and raped her. Afterward, he stole some money and threatened to kill her if she called police.

Mary did call, but detectives couldn’t find the Malibu rapist. And as her case grew cold, Mary’s life fell apart.

Her fiance left. She became a workaholic and an overeater, going from a size 7 to a size 18. Friends and family ostracized her, she says.

Girtman spends his days at the Polk City Correctional Institution playing in the band and studying the Bible. He says he’s a burglar and a thief, but not a rapist.

Girtman, 56, was first convicted of rape when he was 23. A jury said he broke into an apartment in 1976 and attacked a 29-year-old secretary as she held her screaming 2-year-old son.

He was sentenced to 45 years in prison but released after seven. A parole board -- a panel that no longer exists in Florida -- reduced his sentence.

The Malibu attacks started a year after his release.

On Jan. 9, 1991, 911 dispatchers received a call about a man prying open the side door of a house where a single woman lived with three young children.

When police came, Girtman took off running, dropping a large knife. But he didn’t get far.

Rape investigators interviewed him and later obtained a court order for his DNA.

Girtman’s DNA profile matched evidence from all 13 cases that were tested. In 1994, he pleaded no contest to six counts of sexual battery.

He maintains his innocence, saying he accepted the plea deal because he “started to get the feeling that my attorney didn’t want to fight for me anymore.”

He was sentenced to 45 years. But at the time, lengthy sentences were automatically cut in half, and inmates could reduce prison time further with good behavior.

Girtman’s release date is 18 months away.

If authorities convict Girtman in Mary’s rape, or in any of the other three cold cases, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Mary is ready to testify.

“Everything I’ve prayed for throughout the years has been answered,” she said.

bprieto@ orlandosentinel.com