Assault Victims Tell Their Stories
Editor's note: Some of the victims interviewed asked that their names not be published.
With their permission, we refer to them by initials.
By Heather Cook,
Daryl Lang
and Alissa Wisnouse
Collegian Staff Writers
It's a story made up of drowsy memories of a stranger who roamed the
building, reeking of alcohol and harassing women.
It's also a story that casts doubts on the way police handled the case and
helps explain why the assault victims reacted the way they did.
Last week, women from 13 different rooms told police a stranger entered their
rooms while they were asleep early Sunday morning. Six women said the man
climbed on them, pulled off their clothes or fondled them.
Now, a suspect is in jail. The TV crews are gone. The heartbeats of Snyder Hall
residents have stopped racing.
And as the tide of rumors recedes, a more complete story has emerged.
"What just happened?"
Saturday night in Snyder Hall started off as routine.
Like the other dorms in East Halls, most of the residents are freshmen. Many of
them had gone out to parties that night. Others were hanging out with friends
in the building.
One freshman, W., was watching a movie in her room with a friend Saturday
night. They fell asleep on an air mattress.
When W. woke up, a strange man was climbing around on the mattress. She
looked at the clock. It was 4:36 a.m.
"I didn't have my glasses and I was really disoriented. ... I really had no idea
who this guy was," W. said. "After he left, I kind of sat up and said 'What just
happened?' "
Other victims tell similar stories, although in most of the cases, the man simply
walked into the rooms and didn't touch anyone. Several reported the man
smelled of alcohol and acted drunk.
Police said the man entered 13 rooms on the second, fourth and sixth floors.
In Snyder Hall, women live on even-numbered floors and men live on the odd-
numbered floors.
The building's outside doors lock every night at 8 p.m., but students can unlock
them with their ID cards. Each room has an individual lock.
All the victims were women sleeping in unlocked rooms. Some said they don't
usually lock their doors, some were waiting for roommates who didn't have
their keys, others simply forgot to lock up that night.
"We always have our door locked. It was just this one case," said T.F., who fell
asleep watching television Saturday night. She, too, awoke with a strange man
pulling at her pants.
"I pushed him off me. I had to throw him off me, but he's a small guy," T.F. said.
She said she didn't call the police or a resident assistant right away because
she was groggy and confused. "At first I thought it was a dream," T.F. said.
A resident in another part of the building, Julia Cerceo said a drunken man
walked into her room while she was sleeping.
She woke up to find him sitting on the floor next to her bed, and she demanded
that he leave. He did, but he returned to the room 20 minutes later. She again
yelled at him, and he left.
"I didn't think anything of it at the time. I thought it was just some drunk kid,"
Cerceo said.
In several cases, victims said the man asked "Where's Mike?" or something
similar. It's not clear whether he was really looking for someone named Mike or
perhaps using that as a cover for why he was entering their room.
"Mike wasn't down my pants, so I don't know what he was looking for," said B.
G., another one of the victims.
B.G. came home from a fraternity party that night and fell asleep around 3 a.m.
When she woke up, a strange man was reaching down her pants. B.G. chased
him out of her room.
None of the victims called the police or the dorm staff.
"I went back to bed and didn't think much about it," W. said. "Later, the more I
thought about it, the creepier it was."
"I needed to stop the mystery."
It got creepier the following morning.
While talking in the bathrooms, several of the women realized the magnitude of
what happened. Up to that point, many of the victims assumed they were the
only ones affected.
One woman, C., remembered a man walking into her room and moving around
the sheets on her roommate's bed.
"At first I didn't think it was a big deal," C. said. "He was just lost. But in the
shower the next morning the others were talking about it and he had done
some pretty bad things to them."
Another victim, A., was talking about what had happened to her when another
woman overheard. That woman had also been touched but believed it was only
a dream until she heard A.'s conversation.
On Sunday, several of the women told their resident assistants about the
assaults. The residence hall coordinator alerted the police at 5:56 p.m. Police
began interviewing students that evening.
B.G., meanwhile, was getting frustrated that it was taking so long to find the
person who assaulted her, she said.
She heard rumors that her assailant was a student who lived on the third floor.
"I went down to his room and knocked on the door," B.G. said. That was
around at about 9:30 p.m. Sunday, before police had even prepared a
composite sketch of the suspect.
"I called the cops because I knew it was him," B.G. said. "I needed to see his
face to know that it was him. I needed to stop the mystery. I couldn't have him
just walking around the campus."
After B.G.'s call, police focused their investigation on Hung Truong (junior-
computer science), 21, a Vietnamese exchange student with a permanent
address listed in Harrisburg.
Mid-day Tuesday, police showed a lineup of eight photos to the victims. Eleven
identified Truong as the man they'd seen Sunday morning.
By Tuesday, dorm staff had moved Truong out of Snyder Hall and into an on-
campus apartment.
By Wednesday, he was in jail.
Police charged Truong with 37 counts related to Sunday morning's incidents,
including six counts of indecent assault and one count of aggravated indecent
assault, a felony charge.
T.F., a friend of B.G., also takes some of the credit for putting Truong behind
bars.
"They (police) didn't solve the case. Me and my friend did," T.F. said. "They
didn't draw a composite. They said they'd do it the next morning, but we solved
it that night."
Penn State Police Services declined to comment yesterday.
Truong has been suspended from Penn State pending a hearing with the Office
of Judicial Affairs. A hearing can't take place until he's released from prison.
"There's something missing."
Truong has been in jail since his arrest and won't have a chance to defend
himself until his preliminary hearing Wednesday.
But his roommate, Andrew Pelletreau (junior-Spanish), said things don't add up.
"If he actually did that, he probably does belong in jail. But there's other things
to take into consideration," Pelletreau said. "I'm just not convinced that he did
it. The story seems from different sides like there's something missing."
Pelletreau suspects other students may have coerced Truong into acting
irresponsibly while he was drunk.
The police report says one woman saw three men enter her room, one of whom
fit Truong's description.
"I think it's the kind of thing where they blame one person when they're all
involved," Pelletreau said.
Truong had been at a party Saturday night and came home drunk at about 2:30
a.m., Pelletreau and another student from Truong's floor said.
The female students told police the assaults happened at various times
between 3 and 5 a.m.
Pelletreau said he wonders why nobody stopped Truong during that time,
especially since other male students told police they saw Truong going into
female students' rooms.
"It's not like he's a big guy who can't be stopped," Pelletreau said. Pelletreau
went to sleep that night at around 3 a.m. and didn't find out what had
happened until the next day, he said.
The police report cites interviews with two male students who talked to Truong
the night the assaults took place. In the report, the two men say Truong was
drunk and bragged to them about sleeping with female students in the building.
Some residents of Truong's floor said he didn't seem like someone who would
get into trouble.
"I would never have thought he would do something like this," said Jon Sears
(freshman-business), who said he often saw Truong on the floor but wasn't
close friends with him.
Pelletreau said Truong often stayed up late studying.
Truong's schedule shows him registered for 18 credits at University Park this
semester. Truong came to University Park from Millersville University, where he
had earned high grades.
While there, Truong was cited once in 1998 for underage drinking, according to
Millersville police reports.
Pelletreau visited his roommate in jail Friday, and said he's not doing well.
"He was just saying 'I can't believe this. I would never do anything like this.' He
kept saying that over and over again," Pelletreau said.
Exacerbating his problems, Truong speaks English with a heavy accent,
Pelletreau said.
"I think he's at a disadvantage when he talks to the police and his lawyer,"
Pelletreau said.
Pelletreau said he gave Penn State police a written statement expressing his
concern that other students might have been involved, but he said police never
called him back.
Yesterday police said they couldn't comment on Pelletreau's statement, but said
earlier that no more charges are pending in the case.
"This isn't an isolated incident."
Whatever the outcome for Truong and the residents of Snyder Hall, the
assaults have focused Penn State's attention on crimes against women.
Victims and other students emphasized that the women shouldn't be blamed
for what happened.
"When I'm drunk, I don't go into guys' rooms," said G.B. "You have to know
that's not morally right to do."
T.F. agreed.
"Your room is your area," she said. "People just don't go into your room
uninvited."
About 40 students -- including at least two of the victims — took part in a rally
on the Old Main steps Friday.
"An unlocked door is not an invitation for rape!" the demonstrators chanted,
while they marched in a circle.
Some of the same students who organized the rally are also planning to meet
this week to discuss what Penn State can do about the problems.
"This isn't an isolated incident," said Jane Zinger (senior-animal science), who
attended the rally. "It happens every day."
It's impossible to know how many sexual assaults happen on campus
because many of them are not reported.
According to the Penn State Center for Women Students, only 18 percent of
student victims of sexual assault at Penn State reported the crime to police in
1996-1997.
In a 1998 Penn State Pulse survey, 27 percent of Penn State students said
they know someone who has been sexually assaulted. The survey also found
that most students — 55 percent — think the real number of sexual assaults on
campus is concealed from the public.
Statistics in the police Uniform Crime Reports only include the crimes victims
decide to report. Based on records between 1988 and 1998, Penn State Police
Services investigate an average of four rapes and 13 sex offenses each year.
Each statistic has a story lingering behind it.
"Me and my roommate sleep with our light on now," B.G. said. "I'm just glad this
guy's locked up."
Personal Security Products
Editor's note: Some of the victims interviewed asked that their names not be published.
With their permission, we refer to them by initials.
By Heather Cook,
Daryl Lang
and Alissa Wisnouse
Collegian Staff Writers
It's a story made up of drowsy memories of a stranger who roamed the
building, reeking of alcohol and harassing women.
It's also a story that casts doubts on the way police handled the case and
helps explain why the assault victims reacted the way they did.
Last week, women from 13 different rooms told police a stranger entered their
rooms while they were asleep early Sunday morning. Six women said the man
climbed on them, pulled off their clothes or fondled them.
Now, a suspect is in jail. The TV crews are gone. The heartbeats of Snyder Hall
residents have stopped racing.
And as the tide of rumors recedes, a more complete story has emerged.
"What just happened?"
Saturday night in Snyder Hall started off as routine.
Like the other dorms in East Halls, most of the residents are freshmen. Many of
them had gone out to parties that night. Others were hanging out with friends
in the building.
One freshman, W., was watching a movie in her room with a friend Saturday
night. They fell asleep on an air mattress.
When W. woke up, a strange man was climbing around on the mattress. She
looked at the clock. It was 4:36 a.m.
"I didn't have my glasses and I was really disoriented. ... I really had no idea
who this guy was," W. said. "After he left, I kind of sat up and said 'What just
happened?' "
Other victims tell similar stories, although in most of the cases, the man simply
walked into the rooms and didn't touch anyone. Several reported the man
smelled of alcohol and acted drunk.
Police said the man entered 13 rooms on the second, fourth and sixth floors.
In Snyder Hall, women live on even-numbered floors and men live on the odd-
numbered floors.
The building's outside doors lock every night at 8 p.m., but students can unlock
them with their ID cards. Each room has an individual lock.
All the victims were women sleeping in unlocked rooms. Some said they don't
usually lock their doors, some were waiting for roommates who didn't have
their keys, others simply forgot to lock up that night.
"We always have our door locked. It was just this one case," said T.F., who fell
asleep watching television Saturday night. She, too, awoke with a strange man
pulling at her pants.
"I pushed him off me. I had to throw him off me, but he's a small guy," T.F. said.
She said she didn't call the police or a resident assistant right away because
she was groggy and confused. "At first I thought it was a dream," T.F. said.
A resident in another part of the building, Julia Cerceo said a drunken man
walked into her room while she was sleeping.
She woke up to find him sitting on the floor next to her bed, and she demanded
that he leave. He did, but he returned to the room 20 minutes later. She again
yelled at him, and he left.
"I didn't think anything of it at the time. I thought it was just some drunk kid,"
Cerceo said.
In several cases, victims said the man asked "Where's Mike?" or something
similar. It's not clear whether he was really looking for someone named Mike or
perhaps using that as a cover for why he was entering their room.
"Mike wasn't down my pants, so I don't know what he was looking for," said B.
G., another one of the victims.
B.G. came home from a fraternity party that night and fell asleep around 3 a.m.
When she woke up, a strange man was reaching down her pants. B.G. chased
him out of her room.
None of the victims called the police or the dorm staff.
"I went back to bed and didn't think much about it," W. said. "Later, the more I
thought about it, the creepier it was."
"I needed to stop the mystery."
It got creepier the following morning.
While talking in the bathrooms, several of the women realized the magnitude of
what happened. Up to that point, many of the victims assumed they were the
only ones affected.
One woman, C., remembered a man walking into her room and moving around
the sheets on her roommate's bed.
"At first I didn't think it was a big deal," C. said. "He was just lost. But in the
shower the next morning the others were talking about it and he had done
some pretty bad things to them."
Another victim, A., was talking about what had happened to her when another
woman overheard. That woman had also been touched but believed it was only
a dream until she heard A.'s conversation.
On Sunday, several of the women told their resident assistants about the
assaults. The residence hall coordinator alerted the police at 5:56 p.m. Police
began interviewing students that evening.
B.G., meanwhile, was getting frustrated that it was taking so long to find the
person who assaulted her, she said.
She heard rumors that her assailant was a student who lived on the third floor.
"I went down to his room and knocked on the door," B.G. said. That was
around at about 9:30 p.m. Sunday, before police had even prepared a
composite sketch of the suspect.
"I called the cops because I knew it was him," B.G. said. "I needed to see his
face to know that it was him. I needed to stop the mystery. I couldn't have him
just walking around the campus."
After B.G.'s call, police focused their investigation on Hung Truong (junior-
computer science), 21, a Vietnamese exchange student with a permanent
address listed in Harrisburg.
Mid-day Tuesday, police showed a lineup of eight photos to the victims. Eleven
identified Truong as the man they'd seen Sunday morning.
By Tuesday, dorm staff had moved Truong out of Snyder Hall and into an on-
campus apartment.
By Wednesday, he was in jail.
Police charged Truong with 37 counts related to Sunday morning's incidents,
including six counts of indecent assault and one count of aggravated indecent
assault, a felony charge.
T.F., a friend of B.G., also takes some of the credit for putting Truong behind
bars.
"They (police) didn't solve the case. Me and my friend did," T.F. said. "They
didn't draw a composite. They said they'd do it the next morning, but we solved
it that night."
Penn State Police Services declined to comment yesterday.
Truong has been suspended from Penn State pending a hearing with the Office
of Judicial Affairs. A hearing can't take place until he's released from prison.
"There's something missing."
Truong has been in jail since his arrest and won't have a chance to defend
himself until his preliminary hearing Wednesday.
But his roommate, Andrew Pelletreau (junior-Spanish), said things don't add up.
"If he actually did that, he probably does belong in jail. But there's other things
to take into consideration," Pelletreau said. "I'm just not convinced that he did
it. The story seems from different sides like there's something missing."
Pelletreau suspects other students may have coerced Truong into acting
irresponsibly while he was drunk.
The police report says one woman saw three men enter her room, one of whom
fit Truong's description.
"I think it's the kind of thing where they blame one person when they're all
involved," Pelletreau said.
Truong had been at a party Saturday night and came home drunk at about 2:30
a.m., Pelletreau and another student from Truong's floor said.
The female students told police the assaults happened at various times
between 3 and 5 a.m.
Pelletreau said he wonders why nobody stopped Truong during that time,
especially since other male students told police they saw Truong going into
female students' rooms.
"It's not like he's a big guy who can't be stopped," Pelletreau said. Pelletreau
went to sleep that night at around 3 a.m. and didn't find out what had
happened until the next day, he said.
The police report cites interviews with two male students who talked to Truong
the night the assaults took place. In the report, the two men say Truong was
drunk and bragged to them about sleeping with female students in the building.
Some residents of Truong's floor said he didn't seem like someone who would
get into trouble.
"I would never have thought he would do something like this," said Jon Sears
(freshman-business), who said he often saw Truong on the floor but wasn't
close friends with him.
Pelletreau said Truong often stayed up late studying.
Truong's schedule shows him registered for 18 credits at University Park this
semester. Truong came to University Park from Millersville University, where he
had earned high grades.
While there, Truong was cited once in 1998 for underage drinking, according to
Millersville police reports.
Pelletreau visited his roommate in jail Friday, and said he's not doing well.
"He was just saying 'I can't believe this. I would never do anything like this.' He
kept saying that over and over again," Pelletreau said.
Exacerbating his problems, Truong speaks English with a heavy accent,
Pelletreau said.
"I think he's at a disadvantage when he talks to the police and his lawyer,"
Pelletreau said.
Pelletreau said he gave Penn State police a written statement expressing his
concern that other students might have been involved, but he said police never
called him back.
Yesterday police said they couldn't comment on Pelletreau's statement, but said
earlier that no more charges are pending in the case.
"This isn't an isolated incident."
Whatever the outcome for Truong and the residents of Snyder Hall, the
assaults have focused Penn State's attention on crimes against women.
Victims and other students emphasized that the women shouldn't be blamed
for what happened.
"When I'm drunk, I don't go into guys' rooms," said G.B. "You have to know
that's not morally right to do."
T.F. agreed.
"Your room is your area," she said. "People just don't go into your room
uninvited."
About 40 students -- including at least two of the victims — took part in a rally
on the Old Main steps Friday.
"An unlocked door is not an invitation for rape!" the demonstrators chanted,
while they marched in a circle.
Some of the same students who organized the rally are also planning to meet
this week to discuss what Penn State can do about the problems.
"This isn't an isolated incident," said Jane Zinger (senior-animal science), who
attended the rally. "It happens every day."
It's impossible to know how many sexual assaults happen on campus
because many of them are not reported.
According to the Penn State Center for Women Students, only 18 percent of
student victims of sexual assault at Penn State reported the crime to police in
1996-1997.
In a 1998 Penn State Pulse survey, 27 percent of Penn State students said
they know someone who has been sexually assaulted. The survey also found
that most students — 55 percent — think the real number of sexual assaults on
campus is concealed from the public.
Statistics in the police Uniform Crime Reports only include the crimes victims
decide to report. Based on records between 1988 and 1998, Penn State Police
Services investigate an average of four rapes and 13 sex offenses each year.
Each statistic has a story lingering behind it.
"Me and my roommate sleep with our light on now," B.G. said. "I'm just glad this
guy's locked up."
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