Quinn Moffett: Michigan student, 22, was raped by university football player as pals watched, says mom
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN: A woman reportedly said that a football player raped her daughter, while the other players present there at that time just watched, which eventually led to her death. Quinn Moffett, a 22-year-old student at the University of Dayton, was discovered dead in the toilet of her boyfriend's home, and authorities suspect she accidentally overdosed on drugs, in January 2021.
Moffett's mother, Mary, said that her death happened because of the night she was allegedly raped by a University of Michigan football player in the summer of 2018. Just two months after Moffet's death, the case was dropped and the accused player was not questioned.
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What happened to Quinn Moffett?
Around 2 am on the night the alleged rape happened, Moffett and two of the football player's friends returned to their friend's apartment. They took shots and drank from a dark bottle that one of them provided, per USA Today. That was the last thing Moffet remembered from that evening. According to her friend, she was in bed with the athlete, who was naked and had his arm around her. She added that Moffett said she felt sick after the alleged encounter.
According to her texts, Moffett woke up the following morning at home without her shoes or pocketbook and couldn't remember how she got there. Mary thinks the footballer sexually assaulted her daughter in front of his friends.
The two other witnesses were never contacted, and a fourth person, who was allegedly invited over that evening but turned away at the door by his friends was never questioned. Moffett's friend staunchly believed she was drugged and sexually assaulted which caused her mental health issues to spiral out. She started experimenting with drugs and harmed herself.
Almost three weeks after Moffett's death, Mary wrote a letter to University of Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel and football coach Jim Harbaugh on January 21, 2021. The letter read, "I am writing to you as a mother who is grieving the loss of her 22 year-old-daughter. I am writing and tell you this, as a Michigan football player is partially responsible for her death," as reported by USA Today.
The letter added, "Whatever happened back in 2018 was the catalyst for so much of the pain, sadness, and depression that took away the beautiful light she was and left her struggling so much for the last few years."
Cops shut case as 'victim died'
After receiving the letter, Harbaugh called Mary and told her that "he didn't want that type of person on his team or representing the school." He told her to call him if she learnt the player's name and gave her his phone number. Her letter finally went to the university's campus police, the Ann Arbor Police Department and the Washtenaw County Prosecutor's Office, per the The Mirror.
Despite cops not even speaking to the suspects, Mary reportedly said that just two months later, police dropped the case. With the victim dead, they decided not to investigate further, as per reports. After the accused football player went to another college, the school declined to conduct an internal inquiry and avoided talking to him.
Attorney Cari Simon, who defends sexual assault survivors, called the decision to dismiss the lawsuit "concerning." She told USA Today, "To say, 'We can’t do anything about it because she died,' that’s a pretty concerning mechanism for dismissing a case," adding, "Is that somewhere you would feel comfortable continuing to get your education, knowing that’s what happened, and that the school did nothing?”
Mary concluded her letter with, "The University of Michigan can, and has to do better. It is too late for my precious daughter, but on behalf of all the young women on campus and in the community, I beg you to DO MORE."