ORLANDO, Fla. – More than 30 years after she was attacked in her Orlando home, Gail Gardner is being hailed a hero for her efforts to connect the man known as the “Malibu rapist” to an additional 26 crimes and her work to pass a law designed to keep better track of evidence connected to sexual assault cases.
Gardner, a then 42-year-old single mother in 1988, was sleeping next to her 8-year-old son when she says a man now identified as George Girtman broke into her home and raped her.
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Girtman became known as the “Malibu Rapist” after a string of sexual batteries in the 1980s and 1990s in the Malibu Homes subdivision in Orlando. He’s currently serving a life sentence in connection with those crimes but this week Orlando police detectives announced they have connected him to 26 additional sexual crimes and he will face 15 new charges, including in Gardner’s case.
On Nov. 29, 2019, Gardner walked into the Orlando Police Department seeking her case files and met Detective Graham Cage, who noticed similarities between Gardner’s case and others from the same time period. While many of the DNA connected to those cases had been tested, said Cage, technology in DNA testing has improved leaps and bounds since the crimes occurred.
“Back in the ’80s, when we processed the sex (assault) kit, it will come back O+ blood, and that would be it. Today we’re submitting stuff that is now 30 years old, we’re getting a full DNA profile from that,” Cage said.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement lab ran the tests again and got a match for Girtman.
Due to technology advancements and a law passed in 2016 to tackle the backlog of sexual assault kits, crime labs established new standards that have been a game changer for solving cold cases, explained Assistant State Attorney Jenny Rossman, who will oversee the state’s case against Girtman.
Crime labs across the nation created new methods to use machines and computers to test evidence that previously needed to be done manually, said Rossman, the chief of the Sex Crimes Unit at the state attorney’s office in Osceola and Orange counties.
The victims recently connected to the “Malibu rapist” were all female between the ages of 6 years old and over 40. Eleven of the victims died before their attacker could be identified, according to Cage.
Cage said the vast majority of the 26 victims had no idea Girtman was in prison and did not have any closure to their assaults.
“They had no closure at all. So just hearing that they were the other cases are being resolved, this guy is in prison, was a huge relief for all of them,” Cage said.
State lawmakers recently passed a Florida law called the “DNA Evidence Collected in Sexual Offense Investigations” that would require the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to create and maintain a statewide database for tracking rape kits. The law became known as the “Gail Act,” named after Gardner for her work with legislatures and law enforcement to make it happen.
Gardner continues to advocate for victims of random attacks like hers but also crimes committed by family members or within the confines of a home that often go unreported.
“We are all paying attention, and will continue to be informed about how to best support rape survivors,” Garnder said, then speaking to the Black community, “what goes on in this house stays in this house no longer applies. I am paying attention.”
“What has happened, we have been aiding and abetting criminals or inappropriate behavior by our children and family members. We will report this crime and that of others,” Gardner said.
Gardner said when Girtman does face his new charges in court she is “seriously considering” being there to speak her piece, especially for the victims no longer able to do so.
“That breaks my heart that they died with this,” Gardner said.
Orlando police detectives believe there could be more victims connected to Girtman because sexual assault crimes often go unreported. Orlando police Chief Orlando Rolon urged people to come forward.
“The collaboration among law enforcement, the State Attorney’s Office, elected officials, is in place. We want for anyone who is a survivor of a crime of this type to understand that we want them to come forward,” the chief said. ”We want to help them. We want to bring these individuals to justice.”
Free counseling is available through the Victim Service Center of Central Florida. For more information visit victimservicecenter.org or call 407-254-9415.