I read this story yesterday and sent it to a friend. She was a bit outraged at it as well. The thing that got to me, and before I even read the "how" of this happening, I knew that she would blame his existence on rape. Some 45 years later. Don't ask me how I knew it, I just did.
Guess she valued his life so much she didn't report it and didn't want to see him swinging from a tree, huh?