The Full Story | The Girl Who Died on my Study Abroad Trip & "The Predator of Seville"

Thank you for sharing your story and thank you to Gabrielle for being so incredibly strong and resilient not just for herself but for others. It is so good to know that you got a conviction out of it since so many times there is none. It is so disheartening to see how the legal system seems set up to protect perpetrators and revictimize survivors. How unjust a system where it takes years of unpaid work and trauma to gather enough evidence to put before a court. Hopefully this will work to (even slightly) counteract the "she's just accusing for attention/fame/money" narrative. People don't realize how truly life altering and terrible sexual assault and r4pe are.

I found your channel through the Cormac McCarthy essay analyzation and have consumed everything you’ve created since and had watched that podcast episode you did on the other channel prior your story stuck with me in particular… and without ever realizing you were the same person! You make such a great impact with your work!

i was in spain with CIEE for a brief moment a couple years back, ended up leaving early due to some issues with the classes i was taking. i remember hearing some rumblings about excursions we could go on to on weekends if we just told the camp we were leaving and cleared it with our parents, but it was more for the college students and i was just a highschooler at the time. anyway, incredible journalism and you're doing such important work telling lauren's story. it is never the fault of the girls, this man and all of his accomplices need to be put away for life.

💗 Thank you for using your voice, Siobhan. I know it wasn't easy. It can save lives (whether connected to these bad actors, or others who might have a similar M.O.).

great video, better to show how things go down for good or ill

gabrielle vega is such a powerful person. i wish her a beautiful future of creating the art she wants to

All through college I felt like the male version of Siobhan in Lagos. Constantly calling out the creepy dudes with abusive tendencies of every new friend group. Always feeling like an asshole fun-sucker and ashamed, right up to the point someone gets raped. Then I wouldn't know how to feel.

It's incredibly brave of Gabriella and all the other women involved in this to speak out as much as they have. It's really honestly pretty horrifying knowing he could have gotten away with so much more if they hadn't come forward.

17:45 cut of the same cloth in this regard. From such a young age I had such distain for older men with court young women. If happened a lot in my family and I share the same opinion about them as most cases they lever there age to be abusive or just plain gross. It has never sat well with me.

I have lived between USA and Italy (which is culturally similar to Spain) my entire life. The fact that these study abroad programs send these young girls abroad without teaching them even the basics of how women are supposed to act and how Americans are viewed (as easy) is a crime in itself. It doesnt fit in with their "female empowerment" narrative. But things like binge drinking, clubbing not in a group, casual dating/intimacy, etc are not done, and it sets you up for exploitation.

I’m glad Gabrielle is feeling ready to relax. She’s a badass and she’s done a long shift. Fighting for justice has to be a relay, life is too short and the work is too punishing. Everyone has to do their part, but nobody can do it forever.

A thousand thanks for stepping up and speaking out! Sexual assault is a worldwide problem. Bringing publicity to this crime will hopefully sensitize and enlighten people as to how pervasive and traumatizing it is.

You’re such a talented writer. I’m sorry this happened to you.

The “chill tats girl” who said you were “being mean” to Manu in the car and said “I would be bragging too if that many people liked me” irritated me so much. We all have met that one “cool” person (guy or girl) who has shamed us away from our protective thoughts in the name of keeping the peace.

I went to an art university, i had a friend who was beaten by her bf, she had female friends who saw it happen. Those female friends ended up not talking to my friend after they broke up and even one of them starting dating him after. I honestly I’m disgusted by people sometimes

I studied abroad in Morocco in college and I think about how young, how naive I was, and how easy it would have been to prey on me. You feel the invincibility of youth without realizing how incredibly vulnerable you are. I’m not even sure what my point is but I think often about how it was just sheer luck that nothing happened to me.

1:15:00 The conversation here about r*** being a war crime is beyond eye opening even for someone who feels versed in the conversations around SA. Kudos.

39:00 your monologue here was beautiful

I went to Japan when I was 12 as part of an exchange program and my mom cried when I got on the bus to the airport. At the time I couldn't comprehend why she was so worried, and when I got home and she told me that she cried the first night I was gone I thought she was being extremely melodramatic. It really sickens me to know that there are so many instances where a parent's concern was proven correct

your essay broke my heart. it’s disgusting that Lauren deserved so much more. she sounds like a sweetheart and her mom clearly loved her very much. despite only knowing about them through this video now, i feel like i’ve known them personally thanks to your very human writing. i still want to cry thinking about them. you’ve shared a very powerful story which, combined with the documentary, i hope will draw more attention to the case so the victims can get the justice they deserve. these predators SHOULD NOT BE OUT HERE IN THE REAL WORLD WITH US!!