'She Can't Tell Us What's Wrong'

Editor's note: This report includes graphic and disturbing descriptions of sexual assault.

The victim couldn't tell anyone what happened that night. She was a woman with an intellectual disability who doesn't speak words. So the alleged rape was discovered, according to the police report, only by accident — when a staff worker said she walked into the woman's room and saw her boss with his pants down.

Early in the morning on Nov. 13, 2016, police were called to the cottage at the Rainier School, a state institution in rural Washington, for adults with intellectual disabilities. They arrested Terry Wayne Shepard and took him to the police station. Shepard, the longtime supervisor in the building, denied that he'd had sex with the disabled woman. Police wanted a DNA sample for testing; Shepard said, according to the documents that charged him in court, that he had already given his DNA sample "in regard to a previous sexual assault allegation 2 to 3 years ago."

NPR investigated sexual assaults against people with intellectual disabilities. We found that they are some of the easiest and most frequent victims of sexual assault. Their risk is at least seven times the rate for people without disabilities. That comes from unpublished U.S. Department of Justice data obtained by NPR. And that estimate is almost certainly an undercount. For one thing, many victims — such as the woman at the Rainier School — can't talk or have difficulty speaking. So they can't report a crime.

Another reason the real number is likely higher: The federal data do not include the 373,000 people who live in group homes. Nor do the data count people who live in state institutions — where other