“It’s kind of a natural response to push away the memory of something that’s happened to you, and I was just trying to get through the reporting process as quickly as I could because I was uncomfortable, I was physically injured, I wanted to go home,” she recalls. “And the nurse that I was speaking with, my time actually felt like it went faster with her. But I was with her for hours and she was asking about things on my body, ‘What did you smell?,’ ‘What did you taste?,’ ‘What did you touch?,’ and that really brought back a lot of memories for me.”
In November 2014, University of Minnesota junior Abby Honold met Daniel Drill-Mellum through a mutual friend at a tailgate party. Daniel was a fraternity member and had completed prestigious internships at the offices Senator Al Franken and Governor Mark Dayton. After a short conversation, Abby agreed to make a quick trip across the street to Daniel’s apartment to grab more alcohol. Once they were inside, he suddenly turned violent. For approximately 40 minutes, Daniel held Abby captive in his apartment and raped her twice.
After Abby managed to escape, she immediately called 911, went to the hospital for an exam, and filed a police report. According to a warrant, Daniel had left Abby’s body covered in lacerations, bitten her breasts, and shoved his fingers into her mouth, making her choke and gag.
