Denver newspapers and television stations covered the incident the next day, but they barely scratched the surface of the story.
The girl was a runaway from a state detention facility in Colorado Springs. She'd left the facility to be with her mother, Anna, who'd lost custody of the girl when she herself went to prison in 1999.
In her daughter's case, Gilberto Castillo Bernardez pleaded guilty to second-degree kidnapping in exchange for all other charges being dismissed. Last August, he was sentenced to a year in prison and three years of parole.
In October 2005, Martin Garcia-Avaloy, a Honduran in this country legally, was the first of the four defendants to stand trial. The girl testified, as did her mother, who came to court in a prison jumpsuit and chains. During testimony, it was revealed that the girl's father is also incarcerated.
After three hours of deliberation, Garcia-Avaloy was found not guilty. "There were so many different accounts by different people," says Matt Bull, who was on the jury. "It was just amazing how nothing seemed to match up."
The name of Edgardo Alvarez Williams came up at Garcia-Avaloy's trial. "They found her DNA on his underwear," Bull says. "He's the one, from all accounts, that's sitting in the apartment when people came to the door, and by most accounts, he's sitting there with his pants unbuttoned, watching TV."
Alvarez Williams was charged with several crimes in connection with that night, including kidnapping, sexual assault and sexual assault on a child -- with a sentence enhancer for a violent crime. On April 27, he was found guilty of four counts of sexual assault on a child, and on August 25 was sentenced to ten years to life.
The fourth man, Domingo Lopez-Avaloy, was nineteen at the time of the crime, and in this country illegally. More than likely, he is back in Honduras.
The girl's whereabouts are unknown. After the rape, she went back into state custody. She stayed in touch with Aunty, her mother's half-sister, but the last time they spoke, almost three months ago, she said she'd been in a fight with some other girls at the detention facility and was planning to run away. Aunty hasn't heard from the girl since. "She needs help," Aunty says, "and she's not getting the help she needs, and I know that."
The Division of Youth Corrections will not confirm whether the girl is in custody. According to the Department of Corrections, Anna was released from prison on a four-year robbery sentence in April. Aunty doesn't know her whereabouts, either.
Since the night of the rape, Aunty has graduated from high school. She still works at a boutique in the Aurora Mall, just bought herself a car, and is saving for an apartment where she can live while she attends community college. Aunty says she hopes to transfer to a university in two years and work toward her goal of becoming a physician.
Aunty and the girl share a birthday. On September 24, 2006, Aunty will be eighteen. And the girl, wherever she is, will turn a very old fifteen.
