On the campus of N.C. Central University, where she is a full-time student, few people know her.

Today she may be the nation's best-known unnamed person. She is the woman whose report of rape at a Duke lacrosse team party, where she had been hired to dance, has riveted people here in her hometown and far beyond.

The accusation in the early hours of March 14 launched a police investigation. Defense lawyers say they expect the case to go before a grand jury Monday.

Although there are no formal charges, the allegations have prompted a vigorous defense by lawyers for lacrosse team members and have divided the Duke campus and the Durham community over nearly every aspect of the case, including the credibility of the woman who brought the accusation.

Lawyers for the players cite results of court-ordered tests that showed that no DNA from team members was found on the woman. They also cite 911 recordings that describe the woman as passed out and drunk. They say her condition at the time would affect her ability to identify the men she says attacked her.

Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong and police insisted early on that they had evidence of a crime, including a medical exam reporting injuries consistent with sexual assault. Nifong says he believes the woman, whose account is the heart of the evidence revealed so far.

Adding further divisiveness is that the woman is black, and she has accused three white men. That has drawn race, class and privilege into the debate.

The woman has given just one interview, speaking to a News & Observer reporter March 24. Since then, The N&O has spoken to former classmates and neighbors, friends and family members, and has examined several official documents where her name appears.

'She was quiet'

The petite, soft-spoken woman is described by friends as a caring mother and a hard worker. According to people who have talked with her about her studies at NCCU, she also is a serious student who recently received an A in a difficult course.

The youngest of three children raised in a working-class Durham neighborhood, she graduated from Hillside High School in 1996, according to her family. A school yearbook photo from her senior year shows a girl with chin-length black braids and dark brown eyes. Her lips are pursed in a shy smile.

The News & Observer is not naming her or her family members because it is the paper's policy not to identify people listed as victims of sexual assault on police reports.

"She usually kept to herself," said Frederica Thomas, 27, a classmate from Hillside. "She was quiet. ... When I saw her, she was usually with her sister." The sister, who is a year older, is described by former neighbors and family members as a smart overachiever.

The older sister attended NCCU, and her younger sister had plans to follow in her path after high school, according to family members and neighbors.

Those plans were delayed when she met a man 14 years her senior. The man, who became her husband (they later divorced), said in an interview the woman's parents didn't approve of the relationship. Neighbors say the parents expected their daughter to go to college.

With aspirations to travel the world, the former husband said, she signed up in the fall of 1996 for an eight-year enlistment -- two years of active duty followed by six years in the reserves. She began active duty in the summer of 1997 and was sent to school in Dam Neck, Va., near Virginia Beach, to train for her job operating radios and navigation equipment.

Next page >