That very same All Saints’ Eve when I first met my son in his guise as a girl, an event significant to his life and ours happened halfway across the country, in Timberline Falls, a sleepy, small town in central Wisconsin. The event was a strange and brutal case of sexual assault.

In the course of more than twenty years of ministry, I have encountered quite a few souls who had been involved in sexual assaults, not only survivors but also perpetrators, as well as not a few members of law enforcement, most coming to me years, or even decades, later to seek counseling. A few of those cases had happened even before I was born. But in others, my assistance was requested almost immediately following the assault. Twice, the victims reported it to me first. They felt better going to the police after talking with me. But I don’t know whether that were because they trusted clergy more, or police less.

The most freightening cases of sexual assault, though, were not those in which I had assisted the survivors directly, but the few which my wife, Keiko, brought to my attention. She has aided rape victims in the emergency room as well as helped authorities to prepare a “rape kit” after an assault had been reported. Why were these cases so frightening? Because my wife is a pediatric nurse.

So as a man of the cloth, I am no stranger to the anguish and suffering that follows in the wake of this heinous sin and barbaric crime. And this experience has taught me, sadly, that every sexual assault is unique, and if in no other way, then it is unique to its victim. Therefore, I dislike characterizing any such case as “strangest” or “most brutal” or by any other superlatives. Yet the facts of the assaults in this case were so beyond belief that they would continue to stand out even if my son had not started a relationship with one of the survivors.

This was such a sordid case that I cannot write about it, myself, save in the abstract, as I have above. Instead I will include the following report from a local newspaper of the community in which these assaults occurred.

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The Timberline Falls
Courier-Journal

Two Charged in Double Rape

TIMBERLINE FALLS, WI, Nov 2 — Police arrested Charles Gilbert Roland, 47, of East Timber Valley, and a juvenile male as an accomplice, on various charges including aggravated sexual assault and kidnapping after a Halloween party yesterday. They are accused of raping two local female residents, one of whom is also a minor. Police arrested the suspects at the victims’ residence.

Sergeant Sigfried Hauser of the Timberline Falls Police said that neighbors had called 911 when they heard screaming from the victims’ house. Police arrived in answer to the 911 call and encountered resistance from Roland. Sgt. Hauser also said that Roland had threatened to kill all three hostages, including his alleged accomplice, and himself.

Chief of Police Douglas de l’Arpenteur called for a negotiator and a special weapons and tactics (SWAT) team from the Wisconsin State Police to assist in resolving the hostage situation. The standoff began sometime after midnight and continued until sunrise yesterday. The SWAT team stormed the residence when the glare of the morning sun apparently confused the fatigued Roland and he dropped his handgun.

According to the police report, both victims claimed that Roland had required them each to disrobe at gunpoint. They also said that he then proceeded to assault the adult victim. Next, they alleged that he held the gun to the head of the juvenile suspect and compelled him to assault the younger victim. She said that the juvenile had cried and asked her to forgive him.

Both victims have brought charges against Roland and the juvenile male. The alleged minor accomplice has also asked to bring his own charges against Roland.

Sgt. Hauser made both arrests himself.

The Courier-Journal does not name victims of sexual assaults without their prior written consent. Also, the Courier-Journal does not name minors accused of crimes unless and until convicted on such charges in an open hearing before a court of law.

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Two important facts were not stated in the newspapers report:

First, that one victim, identified only as a minor, was the daughter of the other.

Next, that the juvenile accomplice was Charles Roland’s own son.

After he had raped the first woman, Roland had forced his own son, at gunpoint, to rape her daughter. He claimed–

To hell with what he claimed! I cannot bear to repeat it. Suffice it to say that many, including Keiko and myself, now dwell in a feeling of such rage that our spiritual wellness suffers both person by person and as a community. And Keiko, myself, and our children had not even heard of Timberline Falls when it happened. We still resided in New York then.

When Keiko and I were to consider relocating to central Wisconsin shortly after the events of that weekend, we never imagined Timberline Falls to be anything but an idyllic, small midwestern town, maybe depicted a while ago in a painting by Norman Rockwell. As much as we loved New York, we had always worried about the safety of our kids there. Perhaps we were too eager to seize a dream?

Such violence of which I had read was not supposed to exist in an idyllic community like Timberline Falls. That's what we were supposed to escape by moving there. Or we had hoped that we might. When we did relocate to the town, this unhappy situation was already established, and we entered into it unaware of any recent local history.

That was what my son Michael found when we arrived. For he would meet and befriend the frightened, injured daughter of that wounded mother and, to both our joy and sorrow, do acts in compassion and show facts of love that shone more brightly and spoke far more eloquently than all my sermons ever preached on the topic.