On an early morning in February , a young woman in the northern
Louisiana town of Chatham woke to find an intruder beating her
with a wooden board. As she fought and pleaded with the man to stop,
he raped her multiple times. After the brutal attack was over and the
man had left, she called a cousin, who arrived to find blood spattered
throughout the room and the victim severely injured. Soon after, her
father arrived, and she told them that she knew her attacker— Michael
Anthony Williams. She said that she had seen his face and recognized
his voice, as the intruder kept talking to himself throughout the attack.
Michael, years old at the time, was well known to the woman because
she had previously tutored him. However, this arrangement had ended
when he became infatuated with her, and he had recently been jailed
after an altercation with her. After his release, he threatened to beat the
victim. Given the victim’s confidence and familiarity with her attacker,
Michael was soon arrested for the crime, despite the lack of any physical
evidence linking him to the attack.