Netflix released its latest hard-hitting series on Friday, September 13 and people are already making their way through all eight episodes.
The show, Unbelievable, tells the story of a series of horrific rapes that started with the sexual assault on an 18-year-old Washington girl Marie Adler.
The limited series opens with a shaken but calm Marie detailing her rape to police, explaining a masked man broke into her home, tied her up, raped her, took photos of her and fled.
Worryingly, those closest to her begin to doubt her and she eventually tells police she made it up, subsequently being charged with making a false report.
(Image: Beth Dubber/Netflix)
However two years later in Colorado, detectives were investigating a string of rapes with that were almost identical in terms of how they were carried out, completely unaware he’d already attacked another girl.
To make matters worse, the series is based on a real life woman, making it even more of a difficult watch.
The show is based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation by reporters T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong – An Unbelievable Story of Rape.
In their report, the victim’s middle name is Marie was raped and sentenced to counselling, probation and handed a $500 fine for court fees after being charged with making a false report, when she felt pressured to say she made it all up.
In 2011, Colorado Detectives Stacy Galbraith and Edna Hendershot had joined forces to try and catch a serial rapist that was attacking women around the area.
(Image: Beth Dubber/Netflix)
Eventually they caught him – Marc O’Leary – and he was sentenced to 327-and-a-half years in prison after pleading guilty to the rapes of three women and attempted rape of a fourth.
Later, in 2012, he was handed another 62 years after pleading guilty to two more rapes. He is currently behind bars in Colorado.
Marc broke into the homes of his victims while they slept, raped them repeatedly over a number of hours and made them wash afterwards. He also documented the attacks by taking photographs of the victims, which were found when his home was searched.
In the show, one of the victims recalls a distinctive birthmark on her attacker’s leg, something the real life perpetrator shares.
In 2011, speaking to the Denver Post, when O’Leary was sentenced he said: “I’m standing here because I need to be in prison.
“I know that probably more than anyone in this room. I’ve known it for a while.”
(Image: Getty Images for Netflix)
Today, the real life Marie is standing strong and trying to get on with her life – now married with two kids, eventually becoming a long-haul trucker.
The cast and crew of Netflix’s Unbelievable have not spoken to the real Marie about how her story was portrayed.
Kaitlyn Dever, who playes Marie Adler, told Good Housekeeping: “We basically came to the conclusion that I really didn’t need to know how her voice sounded or do a carbon copy of her because we just wanted to tell her story, and you don’t need to know her specific mannerisms to do that.”
Unbelievable is available to stream on Netflix now.
