Jane Doe No More: My 15-Year Fight to Reclaim My Identity—A True Story of Survival, Hope, and Redemption

Phelps (I’ll Be Watching You) traces the nightmarish series of events Palomba endured after she was raped in 1993. A successful ad agency marketing executive, Palomba was bound, gagged, and sexually assaulted in her Waterbury, Conn., home while her husband was out of town. Uninterested police, however, regarded her story as a coverup of adultery: “The red flag, according to officers later, was no evidence of forced entrance into Donna’s house.” She was threatened with arrest and local gossips spread the false rumor of an extramarital affair: “old ladies, sitting around killing time, talking about a rumor... were now driving the investigation.” An arduous yet successful lawsuit against the city of Waterbury followed, leading to Palomba’s 2007 launch of the Jane Doe No More Foundation—to “improve the way society responds to victims of sexual assault”—and her subsequent appearance in a highly rated episode of Dateline NBC. Suspense builds as seasoned investigative journalist Phelps works through police reports, trial transcripts, depositions, diaries, e-mails, and extensive interviews, inserting Palomba’s first-person accounts throughout until the chilling truth about her assailant is finally discovered. 19 b&w photos. Agent: Peter Miller, Global Lion Intellectual Property Management. (Sept.)