Knocked Out

Amy and her family considered filing a civil lawsuit against Gardiner but rejected the idea after some research. A suit would have cost between $50,000 and $100,000 in expenses, and Amy didn't want money, she wanted Gardiner "behind bars." Finally, after a family discussion, the Shackelfords agreed to go public with Amy's story.

"I feel like he knew exactly what he was doing," Amy says, "how much to give me, when to grab me. I just want to do everything in my power so the next woman won't look at me and say, 'Why didn't you tell somebody?'"

Mark Garham

Amy Shackelford believes she was drugged and raped by an old college acquaintance. Though one toxicology test found GHB, a notorious rape drug, in her system, Dallas police decided the case wasn't worth prosecuting.

Mark Graham

Gary and Linda Shackelford, Amy's parents, spent $10,000 on an attorney, toxicology expert and investigator after deciding Dallas police weren't pursuing their daughter's case aggressively enough.

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Glenna Whitley is an award-winning Dallas-based investigative reporter and author ofStolen Valor, a book about some of the phonies who claim to be Vietnam War heroes. She lives in Dallas with her husband and two sons.

Next week in theDallas Observer: Douglas Cade Havard, a 20-year-old SMU freshman, was arrested in his dorm room earlier this year for allegedly selling 10 gallons of GHB to an undercover cop and engaging in organized crime, among other charges. Havard, now a fugitive, didn't seem the type: high school salutatorian, class president, captain of the Winston School football team. But police claim that Havard was, in fact, an extraordinary street entrepreneur who delivered exactly what his young customers wanted most.