Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part series on the Center for Abuse and Rape Emergencies' survivor's awareness program.
PUNTA GORDA — After being kidnapped and raped four times in front of her young children, Julie Diehl Weil was left for dead in her church preschool's parking lot in a South Miami neighborhood.
In 2002, Diehl Weil, then 31, was loading her 3-year-old daughter and 8-month-old son into her minivan after attending a day-time children's function.
Suddenly, a stranger hit her on the head and pushed her into the passenger seat. He grabbed her keys and purse. He had a butcher knife and told her to look straight ahead.
Using the address on her license, he drove to her home to find "money and guns."
Diehl Weil recently spoke at the Charlotte County Center for Abuse and Rape Emergencies sexual assault survivors luncheon at Isles in Punta Gorda.
Within minutes of her story, guests, including Charlotte County Commissioner Bill Truex, heard of her kidnapping and being raped in front of her children.
The whole time, the man blared the radio to drown out their crying. He told Diehl Weil to keep her head down and never look at him.
The man drove toward the Everglades and made Diehl Weil empty her bank account to give him the money.
Then he drove to a vacant area and raped her. While he did it, he told her daughter to go by the water where there were alligators.
"He made me hold my little boy's hand while I was being assaulted," Diehl Weil said. "I cried as he told me I would remember this day for the rest of my life. He said the things he was going to do to me would get him a life sentence."
After leaving the Everglades, the man wanted more money. He drove to the neighborhood bank and ordered Diehl Weil to go to the ATM as he held her daughter at knifepoint.
"I pushed a bunch of buttons and mouthed to the camera that I needed help," she said. "I moved over slightly so that the person in my vehicle might be seen with my children crying and the music on full blast. But no one came to help."
Diehl Weil got back in the minivan. Angry she didn't have any more money, the man took her to a park near her mother's house and raped her again.
During the assault, she could see her mother's car in the driveway but knew not to scream or he would harm her children.
Then he returned to the church parking lot. He made her wipe down every inch of the vehicle and told a naked and bleeding Diehl Weil not to call the cops because he knew where she lived.
With Diehl Weil's children crying after their mother blacked out, the rapist left her for dead and walked away. Minutes later, she woke up to her daughter screaming and drove to her mother's nearby home.
"I will never forget the look in my mother's eyes when she saw me," Diehl Weil said. "She tried to hug me and I told her to get back. I didn't want to be touched by her or anyone else. She called the police. She called my father. She called my husband."
Diehl Weil said while she couldn't understand the miracle that happened to her at the time, she would later duplicate the experience for sexual assault survivors.
Investigators insisted she be treated at the Roxcy Bolton Rape Treatment Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where specially trained medical staff deal with sexual assault victims.
"My dad wanted me rushed to the hospital that was 10 minutes away, but the investigators insisted I go to the center that was an hour and a half away. It was one of the few rape crisis treatment centers in Florida at the time."
Diehl Weil returned to her mother's house and took a five-hour shower. She refused to go home because the rapist knew where she lived. Her young daughter helped investigators sketch the man who held them captive.
Detectives later told her they didn't lift any fingerprints off her vehicle. Her rape kit came back negative for fluids. Her clothing was tested but didn't match anything in the statewide DNA data bank.
Diehl Weil battled depression and became suicidal.
She asked her husband if they could move out of the quiet town she loved close to her family because she was scared for her and their children.
They moved to West Palm Beach. During that time, the man raped three other women in church parking lots. Police called him the "day-care rapist."
Police later found a match from Diehl Weil's shirt linked to a man who beat his pregnant wife.
Authorities said Michael Siebert raped her and three other women. Siebert's attorney pleaded for a 30-year prison term, but Diehl Weil refused.
She wanted to go to trial and face the man who told her on that day that she would remember him every time she looked into her son's eyes.
In court, jurors learned Siebert asked Diehl Weil's 3-year-old daughter, "Should I kill your mom now?" before she passed out in the minivan after being raped four times.
Because it was proved Siebert raped Diehl Weil in front of her children, he received an additional life sentence for each child he impacted. The judge ordered seven life sentences plus 15 years in prison.
For Diehl Weil, locking Siebert up for life wasn't the end of her story.
HELPING OTHER VICTIMS
Diehl Weil testified before Congress to explain why all counties need a rape crisis center like the one she was taken to in Miami.
She pushed the Safer Act Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Reporting Act, which passed unanimously in the House and Senate. It tracks rape kits so they aren't backlogged which allows a criminal to go free without the DNA being entered into the database. In 2018, more than 8,000 rape kits were cleared due to the SAFER Act.
She later opened the Butterfly House in Palm Beach County.
"Because the exam is so long and the police impound your clothes, you have a paper gown and no shoes," she said. "It makes the experience even colder."
The Butterfly House is a forensic exam center where rape victims are treated with dignity. Survivors are offered a shower, new clothing and comfort food after their exam.
She launched the Not Just Me Foundation working with rape survivors and law enforcement agencies around the world.
"My rapist said he picked me because I was I looked small, vulnerable and disorganized. I think he meant distracted but disorganized," she said. "I’m not small, vulnerable and disorganized, but by having these opportunities, it helped me move on."
Diehl Weil has spread her message outside the United States.
"I went to Egypt, Guadalajara, Mexico and Ukraine to talk about surviving rape and the need for rape crisis centers in these countries," she said. "I knew I could share my story globally. I wanted survivors to know we believe them. I believe them. This is my purpose."
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