Author, reporter Joanna Connors speaks about investigating her own rape
Joanna Connors, a reporter and author of the novel "I Will Find You," was invited by the Central Michigan University journalism department March 25 to share her experiences investigating and reporting on her own sexual assault.
Connors didn't speak about her rape for 20 years, until she experienced a panic attack while touring a college campus with her daughter. She decided to tell her son and daughter about what happened to her, and she knew that once she told her family, she had to investigate her rape to find answers.
"I wanted to get over my fear and I wanted to get over panic attacks," she said. "I had this thought that fear comes from ignorance, for the most part. We fear the unknown. I was pretty much ignorant to what happened to me and that was what gave me the drive to write this book."
When Connors was 30 years old, she was a reporter and theater critic at the Cleveland Plain Dealer. She arrived at an empty theater for an interview one evening and met a man, who she later found out was named David Francis.
Francis had asked her to look at the lights with him in the theater and when he was behind her, he brought a knife to her throat and sexually assaulted her.
After the rape, she constantly asked herself, "Why him?" This question gave her the momentum to investigate what happened to her. Her investigations brought her to the sisters of her rapist and gave her insight into their childhood, which was plagued with abuse by their father.
Connors read a passage from her book during her speech about racial injustice in America, and about "the two Americas," a term used to describe the different worlds experienced by white and black people in America.
"The story of a reporter investigating herself was interesting, especially when she brought up the two Americas and how she delved into that aspect," said Trenton senior Jordan Price. "I learned a lot from it and I thought it was a great turn-out."
The focus of Connors' book is to help survivors find their voice and let them know that they are heard and valued, she said. She believes sharing stories gives others comfort to share theirs.
Potterville sophomore Emily Walter thought the book was powerful, and enjoyed Connors' discussion of what led to the investigation.
"I have never heard of someone reporting their own story like this, especially this big," Walter said. "It was interesting listening to her investigating public records and traveling to Boston."
Connors knew that carrying her trauma silently would only continue her constant panic attacks, which led her to the creation of her book.
"You never recover from a trauma like that," she said. "It is something that you carry with you. You learn to accept it as apart of yourself."
