"48 Hours" Live to Tell: I Remember Everything
Produced by Clare Friedland
Some people look death inthe face ... and live to tell
Angela Rose | Survivor: The one thing that still really bothers me and brings me back, I can't see on TV anybody getting their throat cut. When I see that on television it just almost paralyzes me.
It was a bright sunny evening in a suburb of Chicago, I was working at a shopping mall, I was 17 years old, and I had just graduated from high school.
I was excited to go to a graduation party so I had asked my boss if I could get off of work early and where we had to park a lot that was the employee lot across the street, and I had a CD in my hand as I'm singing out loud and as I'm walking, I almost felt like there was somebody behind me, and I stopped and I turned around and about 10 or 15 feet - there was somebody that was following me.
And I glanced around and there was nobody else in the parking lot. ...And a lot of my gut instincts told me to run, to get away, but I didn't listen and I walked towards my car and I put the key into the lock and all of a sudden this shadow came up to my left and I was grabbed from behind and there was a knife pressed at my throat.
I offered him the money that was in my purse, and he said "It's not your money that I want." And those words made my stomach drop. I was so scared and, his car was parked just a couple of steps away from mine. And with the knife still held at my throat, he threw me into his car.
And he had taken my wrists and used plastic zip ties, and bound my hands behind my back. And he had taken these Band-Aids and put them to conceal my eyes ... And after he put the Band-Aids over my eyes he put sunglasses on my face. ...Everything happened so methodically, and I knew in my gut that this was not his first crime.
He started to drive slowly out of the mall parking lot, and he didn't know this, but I was able to wriggle my hands free. And I kept them behind my back and I surveyed the situation ... he didn't know that I could see, but I could see down to either side, to the left and to the right.
I saw that my seatbelt was on, the knife was put down at that point, and he's got both hands on the steering wheel. And I thought to myself, "If I could just get out of the car, even if I rolled out, if I broke my leg or broke my arm, at least I'd be free." And so I can remember just taking a huge deep breath and trying to undo the seatbelt and get out of the car door ... but he was too fast and he grabbed me by my shirt with both hands and he said, "You try that s--- again b---- and your face won't be so pretty anymore."
That's when I realized this could potentially be the last day of my life that this guy might kill me."
Maureen Maher | "48 Hours" Correspondent: How does someone survive something like this? In 25 years of being a reporter, that's probably one of the most consistent questions. This young woman had the guts to try to jump out of a moving car to try to save herself. Would you do that? I don't know if I could do that. You don't know until you're there.
ANGELA ROSE'S STORY
Angela Rose: To this day it still haunts me to think that he had stalked me.
It struck me as very odd that his car was parked so close to mine and there was nobody else in the parking lot.
After I tried to escape, he took my hands behind my back in a very forceful way and tied them really tight behind my back with these zip ties. ... And I remember saying to him "You need to loosen these, I can't feel my fingers" and there was no emotion - he said nothing. ...I remember getting this image of my mom getting a phone call that I had been murdered. ...and I remember at that point I started to cry and the tears had loosened the Band-Aids and I was able to see even a little bit more. ...And I made a vow to myself in that car. I said, "If I get out of this alive, he is not gonna get away with it." ... and it was a conscious decision to remember every detail that I could.
And I noticed that there was a city sticker on the windshield of his car and I tried to remember the year and the city, and the antennae was broken and taped, there was a beaded seat cushion on his seat. ...Looking towards my left I could see the profile of his face and he was in his -- I would have guessed late 40s early 50s -- but really thick glasses, his hair was disheveled. ...And his car was very messy. It was a Trans Am with bucket seats. ...And at this point we were on the expressway.
So we were driving I would guess for maybe 45 minutes to an hour, I'm not exactly sure. ...On the expressway I noticed that there was a sign for the town of Wauconda -- trying to catalogue -- and then as he pulled off the expressway I noticed all these street names were presidential names -- so in my head I'm cataloguing -- all these presidential names.
He had pulled off the expressway and into a forest preserve ... and I glanced around and there's no one around and as the car stopped ... my body just stiffened ... he asked me what dress size I was, and I could hear him rustling in the back ... I heard a Styrofoam cooler and he pulled out this evening gown and he ordered me to disrobe in the car, and at that moment he had untied my hands in order for me to get my jacket off, and I thought to myself, "Should I run?" and I didn't know where I was, but I had this image of me running through the woods and him catching me and him cutting my throat. ...I just decided to do whatever I could to get out of the situation alive.
And I could feel my heart beating in my chest so fast. ...And he put this evening gown on me that he had taken from the backseat. And when he zipped up the side zipper, it fit me like a glove. ...And I can remember feeling just like you are a part of someone's sick psychological fantasy ... And then over this dress he put on another blue satin dress and then another red silk jacket, and with every layer of clothes he put on I just felt farther and farther away from myself. After he dressed me in, in this ridiculous satin clothing, I was sexually assaulted in the car.
At that moment I didn't know if, if this experience was over, if it's gonna get worse, am I gonna be killed, and through that entire experience it was the not knowing was the most terrifying.
There was some tears that had fallen down my cheeks. ...So he had taken this silk handkerchief and he said, "Your mascara is running" and he wiped the tears from my face and it just gave me the chills. It made me sick to my stomach. ...And he wound up driving again and I didn't know where we were going.
And he was driving up this parking garage and he pulled over up at the top floor ... he opened the door to that stairwell of the parking garage and he threw me in and he ordered me to count to 100.
And I can remember walking down these steps ... and I found myself in an auto repair shop. And there was somebody, this man was looking down doing his paperwork and he looked up at me and his face just fell. And he said, "Oh my God, what happened to you." And I couldn't even answer, I was just in shock. And he said, "I'm calling the police."
And I also had to speak to the 911 dispatcher.
911 Operator: Schaumburg 911 ... Hello ma'am. ... Can you tell me what your name is?
Angela Rose: Angela.
911 Operator: Are you OK?
Angela Rose: Yes.
911 Operator: Real brief - were you forced into your own vehicle or someone else's?
Angela Rose: No, his.
911 Operator: Can you tell me anything about the car -- did you get a license plate, a color?
Angela Rose: No, no license plate. It looked like it was a Trans Am and it looked like it was brown. ... all I can tell you is he blindfolded me.
911 Operator: Did he sexually assault you in any way?
Angela Rose: Yes.
911 Operator: Is the officer there?
Angela Rose: Yes.
911 Operator: He'll take care of you.
Angela Rose: OK.
Angela Rose: After the 911 call I had to make the scariest call I've ever had to make, and that was to my Dad [sighs]. My dad has always tried to protect me. When I was young I had the earlier curfew out of any of my girlfriends. I had to be home way earlier than anybody else ... And I said, "Dad listen something bad happened to me. We called the police and we're gonna need to go down to the police station."
WHAT ANGELA REMEMBERED
Det. Gary Ciccola | Schaumburg Police Dept.: Angela was very lucky to be alive ... we were talking about why he didn't kill her. I mean, he drove her to an area where there was nobody around.
He came very prepared, which made us think that this guy has probably done this before. ...when this incident did take place in a large mall parking lot in the daylight ... we were concerned that the offender was not afraid to do this and that he would definitely repeat again if he wasn't caught quickly.
Angela Rose: And at that point, he was still on the loose so there was also that fear of "did he know where I lived?" ...I sat down with ... the two detectives and they said to me, "Angela, we're gonna do everything we can to catch this guy. We have daughters of our own."
They wanted me to recount everything that I could remember. ...And I remember telling them about the car -- that it was a brown Trans Am, an older model ... the city sticker that was on the windshield, the broken antenna -- everything that I could remember.
Det. Gary Ciccola: She was able at the age of 17 to maintain composure to try and remember every detail of this offender -- what he looked like. His vehicle. The route they were taking. ... In my 29 years of doing this job, Angela is by far the best witness that I've ever dealt with.
Angela Rose: Then they said, "Is it OK if we take you for a ride? We wanna go back and drive that same route that he took you and also drive to the forest preserve where you were sexually assaulted. Is that OK?"
And it was so eerie to relive that experience just a couple days later, to see those same street signs, to go that same route to try and find that exact spot where he had parked in that forest preserve. ...And then when they got back to the police station they wanted to sit down and do a sketch of his face.
Det. Gary Ciccola: Angela said that he had brown, untidy hair. He had thick-lensed glasses. He had a couple days' stubble or growth ... and that he was about 170-185 [lbs.]. ...Once the composite sketch was completed, we put it out to the surrounding departments and we put it out to the media."
Sgt. Richard Benbow | Wheeling Police Dept.: I was scheduled to work the afternoon shift as a detective with the Wheeling Police Department. That morning I was home. I was watching the 11 a.m. news and a story came on about a kidnapping and sexual assault which occurred at the Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg.
Seeing the composite and hearing the description of the vehicle ... It was like, holy cow, "there is no doubt in my mind who did this."
This was the same man who we've done surveillances on in the past. ... I then grabbed my stuff and headed in to work a few hours earlier.
I contacted the Schaumburg Police Department ... the name of the man they were looking for is Robert Koppa. And he was a convicted and paroled killer.
Angela Rose: He had decades of different crimes, from sexual assault, rape, kidnap and ... he had murdered a 15-year-old girl. ... And to hear that word murder, it just, it felt like all of the breath had been sucked out of my chest. ... He was sentenced to 30 years and then served half the time for good behavior ... And he was on parole for only a year-and-a-half when he kidnapped me.
Maureen Maher: Robert Koppa is a convicted killer. But in all the time he was in prison he never got any psychological help. He refused all counseling. Because of that, his own parole officer was so concerned that this guy was going to be back out on the street, he called the local police department to let them know.
Det. Benbow: At the time no one was very happy that a convicted killer only served 15 years out of a 30-year sentence. ...My feeling was that this person needs to be put away forever.
Det. Gary Ciccola: We thought, now we know who you are. We got you identified. Now we just need to grab you.
When we pulled into the parking lot of his apartment complex we saw the vehicle, a brown Trans Am that matched the description of what Angela told us.
When we searched Mr. Koppa's vehicle we found a knife with a black handle. We also found flex cuffs in the vehicle that matched. We also found Band-Aids in there that matched what Angela had on her eyes ... there was also a Styrofoam container in the back seat.
When we arrested Mr. Koppa he was very quiet, very cooperative. No emotion whatsoever ... he didn't even inquire as to why we were there.
Angela Rose: When I walked in to pick him out of the lineup, it was really scary to see his face again. ...All that was separating us was this glass. And even though there were four other men dressed in the exact same outfit, I knew exactly which one he was. All of them were holding different numbers. And I said, "Number three" without question.
Det. Ciccola: Detectives went into his apartment and we recovered ... women's clothing, evening gowns, dresses ... that matched what Angela had to wear during her attack.
We knew that we had a very strong case against Mr. Koppa.
Maureen Maher: Unfortunately that was not the end of it. It took another four years before Koppa actually went to trial. And when he finally did get to trial, his public defenders had an interesting take on his defense. They tried to convince the court that their client was insane.
"THE STARS ALIGN"
Angela Rose: Statistically speaking, I shouldn't be alive today. ...when someone gets into a perpetrator's car they don't make it out.
And you know, for my mom, she would rather not talk about it. And I understand, because it makes her think of the day that she potentially almost lost her daughter.
Knowing what evil exists in the world, and knowing what people can be capable of, is something that I'm, I'm gonna have to deal with forever.
Maureen Maher: The list of charges against Robert Koppa are so ugly and terrifying -- kidnapping, armed violence and sexual assault. Hearing all the details of what happened to Angela that night, plus Koppa's lifelong history of violence, his public defenders knew they'd have a very difficult time trying to seat a jury that would have any sympathy for this guy. So they decided to gamble - and they requested a bench trial. A bench trial is when a judge decides the case instead of a jury.
Lawrence M. Lykowski | Former Prosecutor: You do carry a burden as a prosecutor ...and it becomes your personal responsibility to make sure that this guy doesn't go out and hurt somebody else.
Robert Koppa pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. And the defense strategy was to show that he had had over the years a series of head injuries, including a motorcycle accident, which had given him traumatic brain damage, and affected his impulse control. ...This was not a whodunit. Everyone knew who did it. It was why he did it.
Angela Rose: It felt like a slap in the face to me. ...Never once did I feel like he was not in control of himself, because he controlled the entire situation from the moment that he put that knife to my throat.
Det. Gary Ciccola: If this was an impulse act, in my opinion, it would have happened right there in the mall ... it would have been quick, over, done and gone. He's not gonna have the dresses there in the vehicle. He's not gonna have all these tools of his trade, you know, for lack of better words. He's not gonna have all that. It doesn't make sense.
Angela Rose: Testifying was a really, really difficult experience. And seeing him in court and he just stared at me. ...And I remember having my hands kind of clasped in front of me and just digging my nails into my hands because it was just such a [sighs] 'cause it's not only the experience of you testifying but also being cross-examined by the defense attorney.
Lawrence M. Lykowski: As a witness, Angela was strong. She stood right up in the witness box and pointed directly to Mr. Koppa and said, "That's him, right there." ...This incident had obviously been seared into her mind. And she remembered the details years later ... as if it had happened to her the day before.
Maureen Maher: It took the judge only 15 minutes to find Koppa guilty of all the charges. But convicting Koppa of the violent crimes he'd been accused of was never really the problem. The problem was trying to keep him off the streets so he couldn't do it again. But this time around, it was life in prison with no parole. So this time around, he went away for good.
Angela Rose: When the judge said he was being sentenced to life with no possibility of parole, this wave of relief just washed over me, feeling this, this sort of peace to know that he wasn't gonna hurt anybody else again.
Det. Ciccola: In my opinion, this wasn't the police that made this case. This was Angela. ...it doesn't happen often where everything lines up this way. The stars align. ...So it was really nice that this one worked out the way it did.
Angela Rose: The fact that all those details that I had remembered, that they were able to use my testimony in court as they said to kind of seal the deal to put him away for life was a very powerful feeling.
I knew that I couldn't just stop after the trial. I really made a promise to myself that I was going to turn these negative feelings of anger into activism.
And I chose to become public with my story and to show my face and not be the silent victim because I knew that this issue of sexual assault was bigger than me and it was bigger than my story.
And I founded an organization called PAVE. And it's Promoting Awareness | Victim Empowerment. ... I felt this calling to speak out about this experience that happened to me but also to help other people use their voice.
"All along this journey people would stop me and say, 'Angela, thank you for your voice because this happened to me,'" she said addressing an audience.
Delaney Henderson: I was raped when I was 16 years old and it was the beginning of hell for the next three years of my life.
Angela Rose: I heard about Delaney's case ... and I knew after hearing her story that I had to get in touch with her.
Delaney Henderson: I started crying, because it was the first time that someone actually had taken it upon themselves to go out of their way to try to help me.
DELANEY'S STORY
CENTRAL COAST OF CALIFORNIA
Kym Henderson|Delaney's mother: She was always so open with us that I couldn't imagine there was any secrets.
Delaney was always a happy, bubbly, bouncy kid. ...She played every sport and every sport she played, she played well. ...Delaney had a lot of friends. Her birthday parties were always big events.
In the summer of 2011, we noticed some -- what started out as subtle changes that became major changes and we couldn't figure out what it was. ...She was starting to have panic attacks ... and she would just say, "Nothing's wrong Mom. I'm just, I'm just nervous about school starting."
TWO MONTHS EARLIER
Delaney Henderson: It was June 3, 2011. It was the last day of school so everyone was really excited.
We decided to go to the beach to celebrate the last day. Me and my two girlfriends went, hung out for a little while, and then we came back to my house because my parents weren't home.
My two friends invited ... boys over to my house. ...We smoked marijuana. I had never done it before, so I was really nervous but ... I figured, why not? My parents aren't home ...so I just decided to try it for once.
We were all sitting around the table just laughing, enjoying the night. ...I started to get really lightheaded. ... So I got up and walked to my bedroom and decided to just lay down and kind of rest and I closed the door.
Eventually, I heard, like, whispering and footsteps and then realized that it was the two boys ... and at that point, like, I knew something was wrong. And they came in and they raped me.
I remember being, like, so scared and I remember tears like, streaming down my face. I just remember feeling the guilt of, like, you know, this is my fault. I can't tell anyone.
Kym Henderson: At the end of August in the summer of 2011, I got a call from one of Delaney's friends' moms ... And she told me that her daughter had come to her out of concern because Delaney had divulged to her a secret that she couldn't hold.
That Delaney had been sexually assaulted by two boys at her school. ...And at first I told that Mom, "No," you know, "this is my kid. I would know if something like this happened because I'm a good mom." ... So we were in the car and we pulled in the driveway. And I turned to her and I said ... "You need to look me in the eye and tell me whether this happened." And she started to cry and she just nodded her head and she couldn't look me in the eye.
And there's no handbook that says how to handle those moments. But I knew I had a major battle on my hands. I just didn't know how big it was gonna be.
Her dad and I knew that it was important to report it to the police ... And she just kept saying, "They're gonna kill me mom. They're gonna kill me. They're coming after me, they're gonna kill me, I'm not gonna report." "If you make me do it I will lie. I will say it didn't happen."
Maureen Maher: One of the two boys that Delaney says raped her was only 16 years old - a minor in the eyes of the law -- so we're not going to use his name. But the other was 17-year-old Shane Villalpando. This is a kid who was very well known, very well liked at her high school. He was an athlete.
Delaney Henderson: Every single person on campus knew who Shane Villalpando was ... he was the popular kid. He was the one who everyone looked up to and respected. ... he basically owned the school.
That entire summer, I never came out of the house. ... I never again slept in my bed. I slept on the couch and I can honestly tell you ... the first day of school, when I went back ... it was probably the most terrifying day.
There were rumors about, you know, like what had happened over the summer, what had gone down. ...There was definitely a lot of whispering in the hallways. And when I was at my locker I'd look across the hall and people would be staring at me talking. ...There'd be a group that would form and they would all face in my direction and start talking, like out loud, about how I was a slut and I was a whore.
Maureen Maher: Months go by and Delaney is still refusing to go to police. She's also still being taunted daily at school and in her town and feels utterly alone - until one day she realizes she's not alone. She's absolutely devastated when she discovers that Shane has allegedly raped another girl. This girl is only 14 years old.
Delaney Henderson: [teary-eyed] I can't even explain the amount of guilt that I felt because I hadn't reported it and because I hadn't gone through with it and stopped him and - because I felt like I was, you know, too afraid to be able to stand up against him, that he had gone and done it to another person.
So I went and found her and I remember sitting down next to her and looking at her and putting my arm around her and said, "We need to report this."
Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Detective: So what happened?
Delaney Henderson : I did not know what was going on. I just kina faded. Didn't really say anything. I kinda just said, "I'm really tired. Can I go to sleep, I'm really tired." I said that over and over again. And it lasted for probably 45 minutes or more.
Maureen Maher: The two young men are arrested. The 16-year-old is charged as a juvenile and his record is now sealed. But Shane Villalpando was charged as an adult. And now one of the most popular boys in high school was facing potential jail time.
Kym Henderson: After the boys were arrested (sighs) the tormenting got 10 times worse.
She was getting threats on Facebook and in texts. ...Things like "snitches need stitches" ...and a lot of "you just wanted to have sex with two guys."
Delaney Henderson: I remember there was one post on Facebook that - it was a conversation between two people, and one of the comments was like, "I just wanna beat her up." And the next comment was another person saying, "How about I attack her, knock her out and you spit on her" ... There was another one that said, you know, "I can't believe you haven't disappeared. We're gonna make you disappear." ...But these people were all hiding behind a computer screen or a phone.
I was terrified ... I dropped out of school. I was home-schooled the last month. ...I couldn't even finish my junior year of high school.
Jennifer Karapetian | Deputy District Attorney: It wasn't surprising that Delaney was experiencing this harassment after reporting her sexual assault.
A lot of young rape victims go through similar things.
The two boys that raped Delaney were students at a private Catholic high school. ...They were not the type of people that society sees as a rapist. So it was easy to pass blame onto a young girl who was high on marijuana and judge her and say ... "She's lying about what happened to her."
Kym Henderson: If I came to you and said "My child has cancer," your first response would most likely be, "Oh, my goodness, how can I help? What can I do?" But if I come to you and say, "My child was raped," what I get a lot of, including by good friends of mine "Was she drinking? What was she wearing? Who was she with?" ...My daughter made one mistake that thousands of kids make.
Delaney Henderson: The day I hit complete rock bottom, I got probably 50 text messages from different people - all saying the same things. "How could you do this ... you are a liar."
Kym Henderson: She locked herself in the bathroom, and I knew (crying) I knew ... So we broke open the door. ... She was laying on the bathroom floor. And I scooped her up in my arms and I said, "What did you do?" And I looked up at the mirror and she had written on the mirror, "I am so sorry."
FROM ANGER TO ACTIVISM
Delaney Henderson: Friends that I had talked to every day wouldn't even look at me in the hallway. And it was their parents that wouldn't look at me. They would be like, you know, it would be my old softball coaches, my old, you know, second grade teacher. People in our town that I was very you know familiar with wouldn't even look me in the eye because they were so disgusted of what I did. So it was at that point that I wanted my life to end. I didn't wanna be there anymore. I didn't wanna live. I didn't wanna go through this."
I decided, you know, to take my own life. I took a bottle of pills. I wanted my life to end. And I literally remember my parents taking me to the hospital ... and thinking to myself, "Why didn't I take more?"
Kym Henderson: [crying] ...and she turned to me and said, "Go ahead mom, go ahead. Yell. Yell at me. I've lost everything. ...I lost my school, I've lost my friends."
So these are the moments that you think, "God, if just one kid had stood up with her. If one kid had just said, 'I believe you.'" It would've changed so much.
Jennifer Karapetian | Deputy District Attorney: For people like Delaney, it wasn't just words. ... It was, very deep to her. And it ate her up alive.
And Delaney didn't think that she could go through with it, she didn't think she could go through with the entire process of prosecution.
And Delaney didn't think that she could go through with it, she didn't think she could go through with the entire process of prosecution. Because it's such a long and lengthy process and it's so emotional and it's so draining. And I shared with her -- how I was a sexual assault victim. And she realized that she's not alone, and she doesn't have to go through it alone.
Delaney Henderson: The fact that she confided in me gave me more strength to be able to testify.
Maureen Maher: In the case of the 14-year-old girl, Shane Villalpando was convicted by a jury of three counts of unlawful sex with a minor - also known as statutory rape. In Delaney's case, the prosecutor offered him a plea deal. He took it, pleading guilty to one more count.
TV Report: "Shane Villalpando was sentenced to one year in county jail and five years probation, during which he must register as a sex offender wherever he lives..."
Delaney Henderson: Him registering as a sex offender was the biggest part of the plea that was important to me. ... He's not going to be able to move anywhere without people knowing exactly who he is."
Jennifer Karapetian: Even though the case is over and Shane was sentenced ... it's not something that just goes away. Her entire identity for the rest of her life will have this lingering. ...So I think that for Delaney, the healing process has just started.
Delaney Henderson: Even though I'm in college in another state, I do come home, you know, every so often to visit my family. But it's not the same. I - I still can't sleep in my old bedroom... They built another room inside the garage for me. It's not my home anymore -- it's more a place to go visit my family.
Maureen Maher: For Delaney, the ordeal was far from over. One night she logged onto Facebook only to discover a friend of Shane's -- a local rap artist named Anthony Murillo -- had written a really nasty song about her. And he recorded it. It not only disclosed her full name, but the 14-year-old's as well. And it seemingly went on to threaten her.
"I said go and get the feds cuz you're gonna end up dead, you won't be laying on the bed because I'm coming for your head, b----."
Kym Henderson: About 2:00 in the morning we get a call and her dad, Chris, answers the phone. And the only words he hears out of her sobbing is "Daddy, I'm so scared, I'm so scared." ... She was terrified.
Delaney Henderson: I knew that this had to immediately go to the police because I was scared for my life. You know, I thought I was gonna be killed.
TV report: "Wannabe rapper Anthony Murillo is facing two felony counts for threatening to kill two rape victims in a song he posted online."
Delaney Henderson: When they started playing the song [in court] I thought I was prepared but I wasn't. And as it kept going the worse it got, the song, the worse I got.
Maureen Maher: In the end, the judge dismissed the felony charges against Anthony Murillo, saying although the lyrics were offensive they were not genuinely a threat to anyone, including Delaney. Murillo's attorney had argued that the lyrics were actually protected by the Constitutional right to free speech and essentially the judge agreed. The prosecution, however, strongly disagreed and planned to appeal.
Kym Henderson: This isn't just words. This is a message to her ... they want to torment her and that's what they did.
Angela Rose: It is heart wrenching to know what Delaney and what so many other survivors of sexual assault go through. The bullying, the victim-blaming.
One of the reasons why I wanted to reach out to Delaney was just to give her hope.
Music for me has always been an escape and I think for a lot of survivors of trauma, putting their feelings into music can be therapeutic.
Delaney Henderson: I remember her talking to me pausing and saying, "Delaney, do you realize that you're not a victim, that you're a survivor?" She is my guardian angel, because she's watching over me.
And I remember one day waking up and thinking, "You know what? I wanna make a difference."
"I am a survivor and I can tell people my story and engage everyone and let them know they're not alone, you're not on your own like I was. ... and you never will be," Delaney told a crowd at a fundraiser with Angela by her side.
Delaney Henderson: Whatever I do in my life, I wanna help people. ... I was put in this situation for a reason, and I came out of it for a reason.
Angela Rose: It's very important to move on. ...I am in love with my best friend ... I am so happy and blessed that I'm now the CEO of a real estate firm that's outside of Washington D.C. ...And it's just an incredible new chapter of my life.
When you go through something like that you do carry it for the rest of your life. I mean it changes a part of you. ...And so to hear that Delaney called me her guardian angel makes me feel, oh, like, I've lived my life for something.
Angela Rose does not want her last name used to protect her family's privacy.
Delaney and her parents plan to move from California. They want a fresh start.
RESOURCES
Click here to learn more about Angela Rose's organization, PAVE, and other groups offering support for those who have experienced sexual violence and rape -- or know someone who has.