‘Thank God nothing worse happened’: Parent details moments her teen found a man on top of her in bed

By Waverle Monroe

Click here for updates on this story

    OMAHA, Neb. (KETV) — It was a terrifying Monday morning for one 16-year-old girl in Omaha as she burst into her parents’ room.

“She couldn’t really get her sentences out. finally, she was like, ‘The guy from upstairs. The one with the stringy thin hair was just in my room trying to pull my pants down,'” Haley Oleson Rath said.

In an affidavit obtained by KETV, investigators say the girl thought it was her cat, but when she opened her eyes, it was a man quote “on her bed kneeling on all fours.”

Stepmom Oleson Rath said it rattled both her and her husband.

“Her dad immediately jumped out of the bed and was like, ‘Who!'” Oleson Rath said.

Omaha police say that man was 27-year-old Stephen Whitman.

Oleson Rath said she and her husband confronted him just minutes after he left their apartment.

“He was hiding in one of the back bedrooms, and I was like, ‘Hey, I know you are in here. Why were you just in our apartment?’ and my husband was like, ‘Why were you touching our daughter,'” Oleson Rath said.

Oleson Rath said they went to call the authorities, and Whitman left. Later that night, police found him and took him into custody.

According to court documents, he first denied it but then told police a “gator” on Facebook made him do it.

“Thank God nothing worse happened,” Oleson Rath said. “Even aside from what happened with my daughter, just the fact that he thought it was cool that he could just walk in that alone is just freaking me and my husband out.”

In late February, an Omaha police report details Whitman’s admission to having a mental disorder and told police his meds weren’t working.

“The saddest part of all of it is even my daughter said, ‘I don’t want him to go spend his life in prison or get hurt or anything. I just want him to get the help he needs,'” Oleson Rath said.

Oleson Rath said they do lock their doors but it just happened to be the one time they forgot to.

Whitman will be back in court in late March.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.