The former college hockey player who messaged a woman on Facebook that he was responsible for her rape is still on the run two years after being charged.
Ian Cleary, 30, messaged Shannon Keeler, 28, in 2019, saying ‘So I raped you’, seemingly admitting to a sexual assault that happened at a party in 2013.
Keeler’s lawyer, Andrea Levy, is now wondering where he is and who is helping him.
“How can he support himself financially? How can he travel abroad without detection? Has he assumed a false identity?’ Levy told CBS.
The alleged rape occurred while Keeler was a freshman and attending a prom at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
In June 2021, Keeler made her allegations public and shared the screengrabs of the message Cleary sent her, resulting in charges against him.
Ian Cleary, 30, messaged Shannon Keeler (pictured) in 2019 saying ‘So I raped you’, seemingly admitting an assault that happened at a party in 2013
Ian Cleary (pictured) on a wanted poster from the US Marshals Service
“How can he support himself financially? How can he travel abroad without detection? Has he assumed a false identity?’ Keeler’s attorney Andrea Levy told CBS
In the posts shared by Keeler, Cleary allegedly wrote, “So I raped you. I’ll never do it to anyone again… I need to hear your voice.”
For years, local officials have rejected her pleas to press charges, even after she showed them the startling Facebook posts she discovered in 2020.
She reverse course weeks after she went public in an Associated Press story which explored the reluctance of local agencies to prosecute assaults on campus.
Levy says she is furious that Keeler is still struggling to close this chapter of her life while Cleary remains on the run.
“She’s had to push and push and put herself out there… and then he’s just literally moved on with his life.” It’s difficult to measure that impact on her as a person, (and on) her family, her partner,” the lawyer said.
Federal authorities say they believe the man has fled the country.
Cleary left Gettysburg after a Title IX investigation into the rape. According to him, he later graduated from Santa Clara University in 2016 website.
The web page stated that he previously worked for Tesla and speaks Spanish and French and has experience in Costa Rica and France.
Cleary allegedly fled the country after charges against him were filed
“So I raped you,” Cleary reportedly wrote, along with “I’ll never do it to anyone again”
The alleged rape occurred at Gettysburg College in 2013 during an end-of-semester party
For Keeler, the years of uncertainty have been painful, even as she moves on with her life and career, her lawyer says.
She works for a software company and is getting married this fall. But she remains alert to an impending arrest, knowing that a lawsuit could disrupt her life for months, if not years.
‘There are costs involved. There are real human costs. It’s someone’s life,” Levy said.
US Marshalls say they are cooperating with foreign authorities to find the man.
“We put a lot of work and effort into it,” said Deputy U.S. Marshal Phil Lewis, superintendent for the Middle District of Pennsylvania office.
“We take all crimes against women and children seriously and we make those things a priority,” Lewis continued.
Adams County District Attorney Brian Sinnett, who filed the arrest warrant on June 29, 2021, called the duration of the search “somewhat frustrating.”
“I just have to think that this person has access to resources somewhere,” he said.
Keeler is pictured around the time of her December 2013 rape
Sinnett said there is now more coordination between the campus and local police after Keeler’s case — and others like it — sparked a massive backlash.
Keeler is still waiting for her day in court, nearly a decade after she reported the assault and Cleary dropped out of school, ending the university’s Title IX examination.
“He’s run away from this charge ever since,” Keeler said.
Her goal is “to finally close this never-ending, painful chapter of my life.”