ST. PAUL - Sarah Super didn't do anything unusual for a woman in her mid 20's.
She dated a guy she thought was charming and interesting for 7 months but then, like many do, the couple split.
She ended the relationship there in December of 2014.
But she says the man she broke up with, Alec Neal, did not.
"He was trying to do whatever he could to get me back...and what started off to seem kind of romantic turned very frightening," Super said.
"You didn't think he would hurt you? No, no I didn't," she responded to the question asked by KARE 11's Jana Shortal.
Over the following weeks Sarah said Neal called, text messaged and sent emails repeatedly until late February of 2015.
It was on a night that month that she returned to her St. Paul apartment from a weekend vacation with family when things would take a terrifying turn.
"He broke in thru a window in my apartment," Super recalled.
"He had brought with him all of these things like a face mask and gloves, bottles of ny quil and rolls of duct tape," Super said.
Super's recollection is backed up by the evidence that was later presented in the trial against Neal for doing what he did next.
"Then he woke me up with a knife poking my neck and raped me," Super told Shortal.
Neal raped Super two times that night, in her home, before she was able to run away when he was waiting for her to get dressed after the assault.
"I was able to run to a neighbors door and just pound on thier door and they let me in," Super said.
Ever since that harrowing night Super has shared her story.
She recounted it in Neal's sentencing hearing, he is serving a 12 year prison term after entering a guilty plea.
She has shared some of it on social media.
And she is sharing it again here.
"I think conversation is the first step. We can't solve a problem unless we awknowlege that it exists," Super said explaining why she is so public about what happened.
The latest statistics show one in five women have been raped or have been victims of a rape attempt in this country.
Not talking about it, Super says, clearly isn't working which is why she simply refuses her right, to remain, silent.
