Rape victim offers hope to Chase family<P> Investigation helped give Christine Kamin 'peace of mind'<P> By Pam Regensberg, Camera Staff Writer<BR> June 9, 2002<P> The news that a woman had been murdered in Boulder reached Christine Kamin in<BR> Virginia, where she had sought safety and distance from a 1990 rape that stripped<BR> her of trust in people. <P> Kamin's mother called from Boulder after the December 1997 slaying to tell her that a<BR> University of Colorado student had been beaten to death. <P> Television and newspapers reported that Susannah Chase, a 23-year-old CU senior,<BR> was walking home from a downtown Boulder pizzeria when she was attacked<BR> across the street from her home at 18th and Spruce streets, dragged into a vehicle<BR> and later dumped in a nearby alley. <P> Chase died the next day from massive head wounds. <P> Kamin said she thought her murder "had nothing to do with my case." <P> As it turned out, Kamin said, her rape case was solved because Susannah Chase, a<BR> woman she never met, was murdered. <P> After Chase was killed, investigators began sifting through old cases that had<BR> similarities to the slaying. Police resubmitted the DNA evidence from Kamin's case to<BR> see if it matched that collected from Chase. It didn't, but in the process, police<BR> discovered the identity of Kamin's rapist. <P> Twelve years after she was attacked, Kamin's assailant is behind bars, and she has<BR> something that had eluded her for years: peace of mind. <P> "I was accepting that this was never going to be solved and that I needed to get on<BR> with my life and not worry about it anymore," Kamin, 31, said last month from her<BR> home in Alabama. <P><BR> As appalling as the unsolved murder is, Kamin said she wants to give the Chase<BR> family something in return. Hope. <P> "It's very upsetting for everybody," she said. "Hopefully, the one thing that they can<BR> get from my situation is that ... 12 years later something positive did come out of it." <P> After her assailant, Michael Eugene Shreck, was sentenced to life in prison late last<BR> month, Kamin sent an e-mail to Chase's older brother, saying she would like to talk to<BR> him and his family, to offer condolences and to give them hope. <P> Kamin and the Chase family have continued communicating by e-mail and say they<BR> would like to meet. <P> "We're thrilled for Christine ... that she had some resolution," Steve Chase said<BR> recently from his New York office. "I hope we can have the same. Our focus is on<BR> Susannah and her memory, but we'd all like to see this guy caught." <P> It was about 3:50 a.m. on April 22, 1999, when Kamin — a 19-year-old college student<BR> — pedaled her bike toward her home. She was on a path near the intersection of<BR> Broadway and Baseline Road when she said she sensed someone's presence, she<BR> recalled. As she turned, she saw a man running toward her. He reached her,<BR> knocked her off her bike and pinned her to the ground. <P> The assailant, with tattooed arms and scraggly hair, threatened to cut her throat. <P> "He said, 'This is a rape — don't make it a murder,'" she testified at her attacker's<BR> kidnapping and rape trial last month. <P> He then tried shoving her into the trunk of his car, at one point choking her until she<BR> nearly passed out, she said. Kamin resisted but later told him she would cooperate if<BR> he didn't stuff her into his car. <P> During the sexual assault on a nearby grassy area, the man abruptly stopped<BR> because he saw a police car, she said. He continued but again paused because<BR> another squad car drove nearby. <P> He then told her, "I'm not going to get in trouble for this. I'm not going to get caught,"<BR> she said. <P> That was the last time she saw the man until eight years later. <P> Michael Eugene Shreck was serving a prison sentence for vandalism when he was<BR> charged with Kamin's rape. Years earlier, his DNA had mistakenly been placed into a<BR> state database, which is how authorities cracked the rape case. <P> Colorado prison officials falsely thought Shreck was a convicted sex offender<BR> because he admitted to impregnating a 15-year-old Minnesota girl in 1990. Although<BR> prosecutors dismissed that sexual misconduct case, prison officials still placed<BR> Shreck's DNA in a database. <P> Colorado law allows prison authorities to collect DNA only from those convicted of<BR> certain sex crimes and certain violent offenders. <P> On May 17, a Boulder County jury convicted Shreck of the kidnapping and sexual<BR> assault of Kamin. He has been sentenced to life in prison, but he plans to appeal the<BR> conviction, his attorney, Nancy Holton, said. <P> The prospect worries Kamin, but for now she wants to show her gratitude to many<BR> people: The jury, CU police Lt. Michell Irving and Detective Tim DeLaria and the family<BR> of Susannah Chase. <P> "If there's anything I can do to try to keep that investigation alive," she said, "I'll be glad<BR> to help." <P> The Chase family, meanwhile, says it will continue to hold out hope and urge<BR> legislators to establish a more uniform system for collecting DNA of prison inmates. <P> Kamin's case, Steve Chase said, is an example of who DNA databases can solve<BR> cases. His hope is that his sister's murder will someday be solved, perhaps through a<BR> DNA database. <P> "If somebody is capable of doing such a heinous crime ... the odds are they'll do it<BR> again," he said. "We're kind of in a waiting game." <P> Contact Pam Regensberg at (303) 473-1329 or regensbergp@thedailycamera.com.