"I knew it was him," rape victim says of man since cleared of 1985 Richardson rape

A good case to collect DNA samples during an attack.... keeps everyone from being a victim... and puts the right person in jail!


"I knew it was him," rape victim says of man since cleared of 1985 Richardson rape: "

Looking at photo No. 2, she knew Thomas McGowan was the man who had beaten, raped and held her at knifepoint in her Richardson home.

Jurors believed her, sentencing him to two life sentences in separate trials for the 1985 rape and burglary. The judge ordered the sentences to be served consecutively.

More than twenty years later, DNA testing proved McGowan didn't do it.

'For 23 years, Thomas McGowan was the monster in my mind,' said the victim, speaking publicly Tuesday for the first time about the events surrounding the case. 'I am truly sorry that he spent 23 years in jail for something he didn't do.'

The victim, along with the McGowan, and Richardson Assistant Chief Mike Corley, the investigator on the original case, all spoke during a panel today on wrongful convictions at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Convention in Denver.

--Tanya Eiserer/Reporter"