Jane Doe No More (46 page)

There was no telling, honestly, the extent to which Regan’s crimes stretched, how many women had been the victims of this man’s twisted, deviant sexual appetite.

On November 10, 2005, Regan was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in central New York “for evaluation”—which was perhaps his plan all along. Later, a report would detail Regan’s physical and mental health, along with his educational background and social, family, and personal history. According to the report, after college he had gone to work for the roofing company bearing his family name, as a salesman and crew leader. Six years later he started a job at a wholesale building supply company, where he worked until 1992. He bounced around after that, working for various construction companies, a roofing company, finally settling down with a manager’s job at a construction supply house, bringing home a nice $95,000 annual salary. He was fired, said that same report, after he was arrested for attempting to sexually assault a coworker.

The health report was more interesting. In 1988, after a routine exam, Regan tested positive for hepatitis C. After receiving treatment, he told the interviewer, his hepatitis condition “leveled off.” Since his suicide attempt, Regan had been taking the antidepressants Selatex and Tranzdone. Regan also said he had been drinking “a quart of whiskey a day” since 2004.

As he sat in the hospital (and later, while in jail), Regan stayed in touch with his wife of twenty-five years and his three sons, all of whom lived at home and sent letters, accepted Regan’s phone calls, and visited him.

Weeks after entering the psychiatric hospital, Regan was indicted by a Saratoga Springs grand jury on charges of attempted second-degree kidnapping.

Lindsey came forward and said she was ready and willing to testify against Regan in court anytime the prosecutor needed her to. She wasn’t some sort of weak young girl who was going to cower in a corner somewhere and hide from her attacker, allowing this maniac to get away. Lindsey was going to do her part to put Regan in prison for as long as the law would allow.

The media picked up on the story of John Regan and took it national—CNN, MSNBC, ABC, and many of the major cable talking-head crime shows, including the outspoken Nancy Grace. Soon Regan was being discussed as a potential suspect in several high-profile cases of young girls who had vanished and were found murdered throughout New England, including Molly Bish, a sixteen-year-old Warren, Massachusetts, lifeguard who had disappeared after her shift one day at a Warren swimming/fishing pond on June 27, 2000. Molly bore a striking resemblance to Lindsey. Authorities could prove that Rocky was in the general area of where Molly had disappeared while working her lifeguard job. Sadly, Molly’s remains were recovered some time later in nearby woods.

These developments sparked interest in Donna’s case once again and got her thinking about her next move. The one constant in Donna’s life, besides trying to protect her identity at all costs, had been her desire to see that laws were changed with regard to the statute of limitations on sexual assault cases (where DNA was present) and what those first responders did after arriving at an alleged sexual assault and/or rape crime scene. This fight drove Donna. Inspired her. It was her goal to one day effect great change not only in the state of Connecticut, but the entire nation.

As fate would have it, Donna received an important piece of news as the 2005 Christmas season approached. Nancy Cushins, the executive director of the Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Service (ConnSACS), called. Donna had earlier expressed a desire to help ConnSACS. ConnSACS planned to introduce legislation that would make the statute of limitations for sexual assault retroactive. They were working on finalizing a bill for the next legislative session. It would allow for victims such as Donna, regardless of how many years had passed before a suspect and crime were matched by DNA, to see their attackers prosecuted for the crime of sexual assault and rape.

“I’ve been reading all the publicity about John Regan,” Nancy said, “and we thought it’d be great if you could testify in front of the house legislators when the bill is introduced.”

This was Donna’s chance to help effect the changes she wanted so desperately. On the other hand, however, she realized it was becoming harder to achieve her goals and remain anonymous.

I was torn. I knew that by coming forward I could make a greater impact. I also knew that my family was very concerned about me coming forward. My husband in particular did not want us to be in the public eye. He did not even want me to tell my story to the
Waterbury Observer
when I did. We were healing very differently: my husband John wanted to move on with our lives and leave the past behind. I could not do that. I became more educated about sexual assault. It is the most misunderstood and underreported crime and affects so many young people. I could no longer remain silent.

Nancy Cushins explained that similar legislation had been introduced by two people back in 2001–2, but it had not met with any success. With a woman such as Donna, in her position, having faced the remarkable fact that Regan could only be charged with kidnapping in her case, Nancy believed a tremendous emotional impact could be applied with the house legislators. The bottom line was: If DNA had specifically matched John Regan as the man who had allegedly sexually assaulted Donna, why did it matter how many years had passed since the attack took place?

“It’s illogical,” Donna said, “where there is DNA involved, and I think a strong case can be made to make it retroactive.”

Nancy and Donna agreed to stay in touch while Donna considered testifying.

At Dr. Henry Lee’s press conference in November 2005, held at the state capitol in downtown Hartford, Connecticut, he read Donna’s letter outlining her case and what had happened to Lindsey. He discussed how DNA had, after eleven years, a major impact on Donna’s case, essentially introducing a viable suspect, and had brought a tremendous amount of publicity to Donna’s “Jane Doe” story and the need for change in these types of cases. Lee had built the conference around the idea of updating the media, mainly, on Connecticut’s role in the DNA database/CODIS. Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell, who had taken over for embattled Governor John Rowland (who had resigned in early 2004 after a fraud investigation that ultimately landed the governor in federal prison), stood by Dr. Lee. Alongside the two of them were several law enforcement officials, state prosecutors, and state representatives. Lee had the attention of the house and the public.

Addressing the crowd, Governor Rell said, “There is no greater responsibility of government than public safety. No more important task than solving cold cases.”

Dr. Lee explained how the DNA project CODIS began in the early 1990s, claiming that Connecticut was “the first state in the country to create a database,” and adding enthusiastically, “We have a very good record in Connecticut. Very few states can match our record. Every day this DNA is working and lots of cases are being resolved.”

Then Dr. Lee pulled out Donna’s letter and read it, after which he concluded, “This letter shows how everybody worked together to solve the crime. John Regan fits the profile of a serial rapist. We think there are many other kidnapping cases he was involved in.”

Donna’s old friend John Murray, from the
Waterbury Observer
, probably put this portion of the story in context best in an article that winter, writing, “Although [John Regan] has yet to be convicted of a single crime, the mounting evidence against Regan in the last 13 months has transformed from a ‘he said–she said,’ into an avalanche rumbling furiously down a craggy mountain pass.”

By the middle of December 2005, a judge had signed a warrant to arrest Regan on charges stemming from an incident in 1981, the oldest sexual assault accusation on record for Regan. The case involved Regan allegedly trying to force a woman to give him oral sex.

This was great news to Donna. She had been doing so much lately behind the scenes. But the media was not letting go, and they were in this, Donna knew, for the long haul.
Good Morning America
was interested and willing to interview Donna in silhouette so she could remain anonymous. In consulting with Neil about this, Donna told him, “I am considering coming out in the open and giving
GMA
an exclusive under the right set of circumstances.”

“Really?” Neil said, surprised.

Donna had spoken to everyone in her family about it, she said, along with her doctor. She had even mentioned it to her parents.

“The key,” she told Neil, “is to have it done on
my
terms. I would not want it taped and I would want the angle to be a message of hope; the fact that an individual can overcome a trauma with her life very much intact. I also want to let women who are suffering in silence know that there are resources out there. I persevered through a great deal of evil, and the outcome is one of hope.”

It was here, as Donna began to consult with friends, family, and even a media consultant, that the seeds of what would become Donna Palomba’s new passion in life were planted. She decided, after talking to Neil, that “a website would be the most logical resource” to accomplish the short-term goals she desired. Donna had already bought crimevictim.com and victimrights.com, along with a few other URL addresses. But these names hadn’t entirely captured for Donna what she was feeling, or what she wanted to present to victims and survivors of sexual assault and rape. There was another name out there, she was convinced, but it just hadn’t come to her yet.

Then John Murray called about another interested media source. He had taken a voice message from a reporter at NBC’s
Dateline
who was looking for information about John Regan.
Dateline
was in the beginning stages of gathering information, the reporter said.

So now there were
Geraldo, GMA,
CNN, NBC, and scores of other media outlets vying for Donna’s attention. Certainly, if one looked hard enough, it wasn’t difficult to figure out that Donna was the “Rachael” in John Murray’s ten-thousand-word story he had written about her case, but to most of the world Rachael was just another Jane Doe. Yet, Donna wondered, how could she participate in any of this media exposure—getting her all-important message out to the public so that it would stick—and still remain under that anonymous umbrella of Jane Doe? It just didn’t seem possible anymore.

She’d have to make a choice.

CHAPTER
THIRTY
-
FIVE

Pleading

As Donna began to think seriously about removing her Jane Doe mask while working doggedly on getting legislation passed to support retroactive sexual assault charges, John Regan was released from the psychiatric hospital in upstate New York and arraigned again in Saratoga on January 6, 2006.

During his first official arraignment on charges of attempting to kidnap Lindsey Ferguson, John Regan casually pleaded “not guilty.”

He wanted to go to trial. Prosecutor Jim Murphy claimed outside the courtroom that he and his team were absolutely ready.

“She is eager to testify,” Murphy said of Lindsey. “She’s willing to tell her story.” No prosecutor wants to subject a youth to the ordeal of facing her attacker in court, but Lindsey was prepared.

Regan was placed back in lockup inside Saratoga County Jail. His stay at the hospital was over.

On this same day, Donna met with Selim Noujaim, the Connecticut state representative from the 47th District, and expressed her desire to advocate changing the law as it pertained to sexual assault and the charge’s time expiration. That sort of law made no sense to Donna. It flew in the face of DNA technological advancements. The law by itself would often cancel any progress investigators might make within an investigation over any number of years. Wouldn’t this particular law—the statute of limitations—stop investigators from going back in time to investigate cold cases?