ANGOLA â Sheâs a survivor, and sheâs here to tell her story.
Friday, at a luncheon for women put on as part of Womenâs Week by the Downtown Angola Coalition, Michelle Corrao shared her life story about being violently assaulted, shoved in the trunk of her car and her heroic rescue by a Fort Wayne Police Department detective.
She prefaced the talk by warning the crowd that yes, her story is awful and it could be triggering to some and that she would not be offended if anyone had to get up and leave because of it.
The assault
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Detective Arthur Billingsley found Michelle Corrao trapped in the trunk of her own car on Sept. 12, 1996.
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Courtesy
Michelle Corrao, left, and Michelle Ditton, executive director of the Sexual Assault Treatment Center, became good friends after Corrao s 1996 rape and kidnapping. Previous Next
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Detective found woman in trunk of her car
JAMIE DUFFY | The Journal Gazette
It was a shared moment of humanity that neither one will ever forget.
Michelle Corrao and Arthur Billingsley “locked eyes” when he discovered her – bruised, bloody and barely clothed in the trunk of her red Chevrolet Cavalier, her attackers having fled in the woods.