Abbie Honnold She had never spoken about how Greek student life at the University of Minnesota was involved in the aftermath of the 2014 rape allegation.
“I was starting to slow down and share my story, but I had never really talked about every aspect of Greek life,” Honnold said. Us Weekly Just to promote the A&E episode. House of Horrors: Secrets of College Greek Life “It really had a big impact on me what happened.”
Honnold’s story is featured in the second episode of the documentary series, “Rape Culture,” which premiered on Monday, August 12. She recalled being sexually assaulted by a Sigma Phi Epsilon brother. Daniel Drill Melam During his junior year of college, Drill Melam committed suicide at a tailgate party. His fellow fraternity members defended him at the time. He was eventually convicted, but never received an apology from the members of Sigma Phi Epsilon.
“Ten years later, my perspective on everything has definitely changed, but it still affects me emotionally,” Honnold explained. WeShe noted that even after undergoing police training “fairly regularly,” she still needed time to “come to terms” after sharing her experiences, “but as time went on, it got a lot easier.”
After accusing Drill Melam of rape, Honnold detailed the backlash he received from members of Greek life on the University of Minnesota campus. Two of Drill Melam’s fraternity members even recorded phone calls with Honnold, tricking him into admitting that the sex was consensual. After the fraternity members shared the recordings, Drill Melam was released from police custody and was not charged with any crime.
“I thought I’d gone mad, that I’d actually blurted out something that hadn’t happened,” Honnold recalled. “I knew I hadn’t lied about the assault, but I thought I’d really gone mad.”
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The recording of the phone call was played during an episode of the A&E series Honnold, in which she detailed the incident with Drill-Melam. Honnold explicitly stated that she had been raped, before fellow alumni asked her further questions about “consensual sex,” which were muttered so that they sounded like “actual sex.” Honnold responded, “Yes.”
“That was proof that they were trying to scam me over the phone,” she said. We“At that moment, it really gave me hope that maybe something could be done about this. One of the guys who called was walking around campus bragging that he’d found the truth and exposed me. So, hearing it with my own ears, it was… more than enough vindication.”
After Drill-Melam’s release, Honnold named him as his rapist in an anonymous blog post, after which other victims came forward, some of whom were initially reluctant to do so.
“I’m just angry at what he did to so many people. I think most people feel isolated when something like that happens,” she explained. We“I think he was really good at isolating his victims and finding people who didn’t have a lot of support, which was the case for a lot of his victims. He knew we were the types of people who probably wouldn’t come forward.”
After the Drill-Melam case was reopened in 2015, he was arrested again and tried for raping Honnold and a second victim. In August 2016, Drill-Melam pleaded guilty to two counts of rape and was sentenced to 74 months in prison. He was released in September 2020.
Despite Drill-Mellum’s conviction, Honnold was never heard from again by his fellow fraternity members.
“I’m a really tolerant person, so when I came forward with this, there was this hope in my mind that maybe people would apologize,” she said. “Maybe we could come together and something good could come out of this, but that wasn’t the case with them.”
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Honnold’s experience led to the creation of the Abby Honnold Act, which became law in 2022, establishing trauma-informed training programs for law enforcement on responding to certain crimes, including sexual assault. Despite “a lot of good things accomplished” in the 10 years since her rape, Honnold said: “I’m not sure what to do.” We “It remains sad that no one has admitted to any wrongdoing in this situation,” he said.
“In my mind, I was hoping that they would come forward and say, ‘Hey, I really made a mistake,'” she added. “That didn’t happen, but there are a lot of guys in Greek life at the University of Minnesota who are years younger than them and don’t even know them, and they started to really address the issue, and I’m really grateful for that.”
Speaking specifically about her own healing process, Honnold reflected on her time as a college student.
“As a teenager, I never thought I’d be talking so openly about this,” she confessed to Us magazine. “I was really quiet for two years after it happened. I think being able to talk about my experience, instead of having other people talk about it, has been really healing.”
New Episodes House of Horrors: Secrets of College Greek Life Premieres Mondays at 9pm ET on A&E.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted: National Sexual Assault Hotline Call us at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
