Befriending Red Deer rapist kept kidnapped teen alive
Red Deer man pleads guilty to kidnap, assault
Sherri Zickefoose, Calgary Herald
Published: Wednesday, November 04, 2009
RED DEER - A teen abducted and repeatedly raped by a man dressed as a Mountie says she stayed alive by persuading her captor to free her because she was "too innocent."
Gerard John Baumgarte, 57, pleaded guilty in provincial court Tuesday, admitting a fantasy-fuelled hunting spree where he snatched the girl and forced her to wear blackened ski goggles while he sexually assaulted her at his Red Deer trailer park home for more than 46 hours last February.
The teen, now 17, says her horrifying ordeal made her think of murdered women whose bodies are never found.
"I thought, 'How do I get myself out of this so I don't end up like them?' " she told the Herald on Sunday.
"I figured he wasn't going to kill someone he thought was his friend. I talked about being on the honour roll, how I liked to ride horses. I don't swear."
"He offered me a beer at one point and I said I didn't drink," she said.
Her plan to humanize herself worked, she said. On the third day of enduring repeated rapes, humiliation and captivity, Baumgarte finally agreed to release her.
"He said I was too innocent."
Sentencing is set for Thursday.
Inspired by CSI-type television shows, the girl pulled out strands of her own hair, touched everything she could to leave fingerprints, and even wiped mucus when she thought her tormentor wasn't watching.
Before he confiscated her cellphone, the girl tried texting the message "help" by pressing buttons without looking at them. It never sent.
In court, Baumgarte's defence lawyer Patty MacNaughton spoke for him, pleading guilty to charges of kidnapping, unlawful confinement, sexual assault, impersonating a police officer, using an imitation firearm to kidnap, and assault with a weapon.
Baumgarte said nothing. Dressed in a prison-issued blue jumpsuit, he stared expressionless with his head bowed. A psychiatrist has labelled Baumgarte a suicide risk. While in police custody, he used his eyeglasses to slice his inner arm, requiring several stitches, court heard.
According to an agreed statement of facts read out in court, Baumgarte had been fantasizing about kidnapping and raping someone for two weeks prior to the incident. He spotted the teenage victim at a Penhold gas station as he was fuelling his mother's car.
Baumgarte, a long-haul trucker, also said he was depressed from his divorce at the time of the attack, and "everything fell into place" when he spotted the teen walking out of the gas bar. She was buying apple juice to soothe her sore throat.
Baumgarte wore a jacket with phoney police shoulder badges and a fur hat similar to what RCMP officers wear.
He had equipped his mother's car with flashing red and blue lights. Baumgarte told police later he always wanted to be a police officer, but couldn't because he was not a Canadian citizen.
Baumgarte followed the girl home, where he pulled her over on a bogus routine traffic stop in the back alley behind the house. He got the girl to get into his car, where he pulled the knife and slashed her right cheek, causing a deep two-inch wound on her face which has left a permanent scar.
Baumgarte pointed a BB gun at the girl and threatened to shoot her if she didn't look away from him.
He drove a short distance away, forcing her into the trunk after binding her hands with plastic tie wraps and strapping on a pair of blacked-out ski googles so she couldn't see.
Baumgarte drove to his Red Deer trailer park and as he walked her from the car, her cellphone rang.
It was her mother, frantically trying to find her missing daughter after family discovered her truck abandoned outside the home. Her purse and juice were still inside.
Baumgarte left the girl alone and returned with fast food.
It made her vomit.
He also changed the bandages on her cut cheek.
On the third day of being raped and forced to shower wearing the goggles and wear long underwear while he laundered blood off her clothes, the girl persistently offered advice on places he could free her. They agreed on a shopping mall.
"I tried to pick the movie theatre because it was well lit and I could get away," she said.
Baumgarte made the girl tuck her hair under a tuque, still wearing the goggles, and drove her to the mall. He gave the girl $5, and told her not to look back.
She walked deep inside the mall to get change for a pay phone and called home.
Her father answered.
"She said, 'Daddy, I'm not with him, I got away. It was a policeman who took me,' " the girl's father said.
Police arrested Baumgarte the next day after identifying the car he used seen in the mall's surveillance video footage.
The girl's relief was short-lived.
"How do I believe it's really him when I was blindfolded the whole time?" the shaken girl told her parents.
The girl says she has no memory of Baumgarte's face, and doesn't even know his name. Her family has kept her shielded from court coverage.
"I think it's better not to know. I didn't see him. I don't know his name," she said.
Her parents and aunt read victim impact statements expressing their anger and fear for their daughter's future.
Her trauma is agonizing, they say, because she lives in a constant state of fear.
She attends psychotherapy regularly and suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder. The girl's mother send texts during court breaks to keep her updated, her uncle said.
"She didn't want to be here and I can understand that. It's a lot for anybody to sit here and have that monster in front of you."
He said the family is hoping his sentence will be tough.
"I never want to see him walking the street again," he said.
"It doesn't look like he's sorry. It doesn't show remorse at all."
szickefoose@ theherald.canwest.com
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