//Georgia Woman’s Close Call with Online Dating App Rapist

Georgia Woman’s Close Call with Online Dating App Rapist

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Kelly, from Georgia, couldn’t have predicted that a clean-cut, charismatic suitor she met on a dating app was a serial rapist living a double life, Fox News reported.

The Georgia woman was one of several online dating victims who opened up to Elizabeth Vargas, who is behind the new A&E Networks docuseries “The Untold Story.”

The series highlights events that have a profound impact society, with this particular episode, “Dating App Horrors: The Untold Story,” which premiered on Thursday, May 2.

The episode will explore the largely unregulated dating app history and the risks of dating online, which in some rare cases have led to assault, rape and even murder. Vargas investigated this topic through interviews with lawyers, detectives and advocates, who all hoped that an in-depth discussion will prevent future horrifying incidents from occurring.

Kelly told Fox News she was compelled to come forward for the special to raise awareness on the potential dangers in dating apps.

“[I wanted to] put out to other survivors that they’re not alone,” she said. “Other people have dealt with this and what they’re feeling is completely normal.”

Kelly told Vargas she was 30 years old in 2012 when she yearned to make a connection with someone, prompting her to create an account on OkCupid. Soon after, a man name Zach Anderson contacted her.

“Really, he just looked like a normal, nice guy,” she recalled. “He was really good-looking. He just looked like someone I would want to get to know. I think we had a lot of the same hobbies and interests. I felt I should get to know him and see where it goes.”

The two continued exchanging messages and agreed to meet a week later.

“We decided to meet up for an early drink, nothing fancy or anything,” said Kelly to Fox News. “Just so we can get to know each other and everything for an hour so so.”

When Kelly got there her first impression was that he seemed like a “nice guy,” sitting at a booth at the bar which was crowded that day. Respectiful and handsome, well put-together, he had charm and she was interested.

Kelly’s first impression quickly changed when the two wound up his car a few hours later outside of the bar when he tried to kiss her. The documentary reported that Kelly said, “a switch went off.”

Kelly said in the documentary that he became forceful, aggressively grabbing her thigh. Kelly said “no,” but he pulled her pants down and raped her.

“I was still in shock,” Kelly said after she finally got home. “I was shaking. I was crying. I was just in shock that this just happened. It was the last thing I was expecting. I called my best friend at the time. I just didn’t know what to do.”

Kelly explained to Vargas in the documentary that she reached out to OkCupid, warning them there was a rapist using their site. She received a response back stating they couldn’t find the profile in question. Kelly then sent another email but claimed she never heard from the site after that.

OkCupid and other online dating apps are very minimally regulated, use caution

Nothing came of it, other than Kelly’s dismay.

About two years later, Kelly received a call from the Atlanta District Attorney’s office, informing her that the man she had been raped by was really Devin Richard Hartman, a married father of three who used a dating website to lure and rape another woman.

“The prosecutors on the case reached out to me,” said Kelly in the documentary. “Told me his real name, told me he had hurt multiple individuals. That he had been arrested for one individual…. And they needed my help. At that point, I had been through therapy. I was doing a lot better, so I was more than happy to help and put him away.”

In late 2015, a Fulton County jury convicted Hartman, then 40, of rape and aggravated sodomy for the June 2014 assault of a 28-year-old woman whom he met on OkCupid using the alias Zach Anderson, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. 

According to a police report, the woman told investigators she had six beers before her date dropped her off at her car. The next thing she remembered was waking up on her own doorstep without her keys, cellphone or underwear.

ince then, Kelly works with Jane Doe No More, a non-profit organization that helps to empower survivors of sexual crimes and they embark on the healing process.

“It’s not a horrible thing to date online,” said Kelly. “It’s just that there are so many bad people out there and it’s so easy for them. So many people use dating apps and it’s hard to track everyone out there.”

For those who have had similar experiences, Valdosta Today would like to hear your story. If this is so widespread, no doubt locals are experiencing the same.

Please email the editor, rpostell@blackcrow.fm.