Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of assault. Reader discretion is advised.
Oxygen’s Dateline: Unforgettable chronicles the assault on Amber Smith by Stefan Moon, an assault survivor. The incident had occurred in Fort Collins, Colorado. Smith’s attacker, Stefan Moon, then befriended her before the police caught him in 2017. The episode titled “Left for Dead” will air on the network this Thursday, February 15, 2024, at 8 p.m. ET.
The official synopsis for the upcoming episode states, “The survivor of a horrible attack is convinced the police on the case have the wrong suspect. Keith Morrison looks back on his heart-wrenching interview with the victim and her courageous quest to uncover the truth.”
According to the Coloradoan, police found Amber Smith brutally beaten and assaulted on August 31, 2013. She had tape around her head, covering her eyes and mouth with hands and feet bound with red duct tape. The attacker had brutally beaten her, causing her to suffer from a brain bleed and a broken jaw. The man had also strangled her.
Smith’s attacker, Stefan Moon, then befriended her years after the assault. Authorities arrested Moon using DNA evidence in August 2017, four years after the incident, which then led to his conviction in 2019. Moon then received a sentence of 128 years to life in prison. According to the Department of Corrections, Moon is currently serving his sentence in the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility.
How did authorities identify Amber Smith’s attacker, Stefan Moon?
The Coloradoan reported that in the early morning hours of August 31, 2013, police found Amber Smith naked at Cottonwood Glen Park in Fort Collins. Officers found her sitting on a concrete footpath after responding to a call of a woman screaming. The attacker had bound Smith’s hands and feet with red duct tape. Moreover, there were layers of tape around her head, covering her eyes and mouth.
Smith was badly beaten and had suffered a broken jaw as well as a brain bleed. Her face and neck had marks from being beaten, scratched, and strangled. The victim later recalled that she was drinking with a friend in Rossborough Park on the evening of August 30, 2013. However, she had too much to drink and passed out when the friend left her on the park bench. Smith claimed the next thing she remembers is waking up tied up with her mouth taped shut in a strange residence.
The outlet reported that authorities collected DNA samples from Amber Smith’s body and the tape the attacker had bound her with. During the investigation, detectives tried to find potential leads, including the male friend whom she was drinking with. However, they failed to find any matches. The case eventually went cold until 2017.
In August 2017, four years after the attack, analysts created a DNA profile with the samples collected in 2013. The samples matched Stefan Moon’s, which resulted in his arrest. But, by then, Moon had moved into the same home with Smith, who befriended her in either 2015 or 2016.
Once detectives identified Moon as Smith’s attacker, they seized his phone and found 624 searches for rape porn. However, the suspect claimed that he was in Rossborough Park on the evening of August 30, 2013, responding to a Craigslist ad for free sex acts. He then ended up having sex with an unidentified woman because he gave her beer. Moon also tried to pin the blame on his roommate and friend. However, police investigated and eventually cleared the friend.
In August 2019, a jury found Moon guilty of two counts of sexual assault, second-degree kidnapping, and first-degree assault. Then, in October of that year, he received a sentence of 128 years to life in prison as a sexually violent predator, per Coloradoan.
Dateline: Unforgettable’s episode on Amber Smith’s assault by Stefan Moon will air on February 15, 2024.