IN AUGUST of 2002, Mark Bonin followed a dream by moving from Spotsylvania County to San Francisco to study filmmaking.

The brutal rape of his girlfriend three days after he arrived may be what allows him to break into making movies.

The Courtland High School grad and the girlfriend he met here in Fredericksburg were both 21 years old then.

Unhappy with his pre-law studies over several semesters at East Carolina University, Bonin decided to follow her to San Francisco and follow his dream of filmmaking.

"I thought I was going to find warm sunshine, independence, plenty of parties and Olsen twins," he said. "Instead, I got two days of fun."

On that third morning, his girlfriend took the same walk to a teaching job she'd had for several weeks.

Fifteen feet from the door, she was assaulted and raped by a man police later said had probably stalked her and who was eventually charged in other rapes.

Unable to reach Bonin, his girlfriend--whom I won't name here--endured a day of police investigations and medical treatment alone.

When she got home, Bonin said, his girlfriend gave him a detailed description of the rape and what followed.

"We didn't know it then, but there was no way people our age, with no relatives or other support nearby, were going to make it through something like that and stay together," said Bonin.

The plain-spoken 28-year-old said he tried to do all he could to provide his girlfriend the support she needed, and for a while, that helped.

But the romance and life they envisioned unraveled as they were unable to get beyond the aftermath of the brutal attack.

"She, of course, was the main victim here, affected in so many ways," he said. "But at the time, I didn't understand that it was also affecting me. I couldn't help her and didn't know how to help myself."

By the spring of 2004, Bonin had moved out.

His college pursuit had taken its own strange turns, as initial loans had fallen through.