What happened to the real people in the true story portrayed in Netflix’s limited series, Unbelievable, after it ended? Unbelievable depicts the harrowing story of Marie, an 18-year-old girl in Washington who in 2008, reported a rape only to be coerced into renouncing her accusation, which resulted in a false reporting charge. Thanks to the work of two brave detectives in Colorado three years later, Marie’s rapist, who committed similar crimes with new victims across multiple states in the years prior, was apprehended and sentenced to prison. Marie was then exonerated for her charge.
Unbelievable stars Kaitlyn Dever as Marie Adler and Merrit Wever and Toni Collette as the two detectives who work together to bring down and eventually catch the serial rapist. The show is a true crime series that spans two timelines: Marie’s timeline in 2008 and the detectives’ timeline in 2011. The series draws a lot of research from the Pulitzer Prize-winning 2015 article titled An Unbelievable Story of Rape by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong. The series tried to remain as faithful to the original story as possible out of respect for Marie and the rest of the victims. Unbelievable was met with widespread critical acclaim and resulted in four Golden Globe nominations: Best Limited Series or Television Film, Best Actress for both Dever and Wever, and Best Supporting Actress for Collette.
In the finale of the Netflix series, Marie is exonerated for her crime, sues the city of Lynnwood, Washington, and receives $150,000 in damages. Marie’s rapist, Chris McCarthy, is sentenced to life in prison. The final scene shows Marie calling Duvall and thanking her for catching her assaulter before driving off in the distance. After Unbelievable ended, many viewers wondered what happened after the show ended. Where are Marie and the detectives now?
Marie Is Married With Children
Marie, which is her middle name (Marie’s first name was never revealed by the ProPublica writers and “Adler” is fictional), became a long-haul truck driver after receiving her commercial driver’s license. As of 2015, Marie was married and expecting her second child with her husband. However, due to privacy concerns, Marie’s location was not revealed.
More importantly, Marie, who is set to turn 29 this year, watched the show and felt that Dever perfectly captured her struggle, especially in the scene where she’s confronted by the police before recanting her statement. In a series of tweets from Armstrong, Marie said that the detectives who caught the rapist were like her “guardian angels.” Marie also said that seeing her perpetrator sentenced to life in prison brought her closure.
The Two Lead Detectives Still Work In Colorado And Remain Friends
Wever’s Karen Duvall is based on Detective Stacy Galbraith. In the show, Galbraith is portrayed as the young, compassionate detective. It was Galbraith’s husband, an officer in Westminster, who noticed that Galbraith’s case was very similar to a case in his district. According to People, Galbraith won Officer of the Year in 2012 for her work on the case. Galbraith joined the Colorado Bureau of Investigations as an agent and now works as a criminal investigator in the office of the Jefferson County District Attorney.
Toni Collette’s Grace Rasmussen is based on Edna Hendershot.
In the series, Hendershot was the veteran detective in the investigation. However, the real Hendershot was more easygoing than Collette’s fiery and aggressive portrayal. Hendershot became a sergeant for the Westminster Police in 2013 and a patrol commander in 2017. Hendershot does not work on rape cases anymore, but uses her expertise to help train officers on how to properly handle sexual assault cases. Galbraith and Hendershot remain friends and continue to speak on panels about their experiences from this case.
The Real Lynwood Detectives Faced Minimal Reperuccsions For Their Mistakes
Lynwood Detectives Pruitt (Bill Fagerbakke) and Parker (Eric Lange) are based on Jerry Rittgarn and Sgt. Jeffrey Mason respectively. In the show, Pruitt was stern and lacked compassion while interrogating Marie. When it came time to apologize in the final episode, Pruitt remained silent as he looked on in disbelief at Marie. In real life, Rittgarn left the Lynwood police department before Marie’s attacker was captured. Rittgarn also declined to be interviewed by the ProPublica writers.
On the other hand, Parker showed remorse and regret, which led to his apology at the end of the series. In real life, Mason portrayed significant guilt towards the real Marie and admitted he made serious mistakes in the handling of the case. The Lynwood Police Department completely overhauled their department and investigated how officers handle sexual assault claims and cases to ensure that this mistreatment never happens again. Mason now works as a narcotics officer.
Marie Forgave Her Step Moms For Their Disbelief And Mistrust
In the Netflix series, Marie’s foster mothers, Judith (Elizabeth Marvel) and Colleen (Bridget Everett), both doubted Marie’s claim that she was raped. Judith is the real-life Peggy Cunningham. In the show, Judith spoke to the police and started to doubt Marie’s claim, saying Marie acted out for attention at times. This mistrust played a significant role in why the police doubted and coerced Marie into a false confession.
Colleen is based on Shannon McQuery. In the series, Colleen doubted Marie’s rape claim because of her calm demeanor. Although both foster moms have been honest about their reasons for doubting Marie, they ultimately apologized and admitted their mistakes. Marie forgave both of her foster moms and encouraged them to watch the series.
Marie’s Assaulter Is Serving A Life Sentence In Prison
Unbelievable‘s serial rapist, Chris McCarthy (Blake Ellis), is named Marc O’Leary in real life. In the show and in real life, McCarthy meticulously cleaned his crime scenes and made his victims shower in order to remove traces of his genetics. Just like the show depicted, O’Leary was caught and sentenced to life in prison. O’Leary was sentenced to 327 and a half years in prison for his crimes in Colorado and 68 and a half years for his actions against Marie and another victim in Washington.
