EXCLUSIVE: 'Lovely Bones' author Alice Sebold, 59, refuses to comment after black man she accused of raping her in 1981 was exonerated: PI who helped clear his name says he believes he knows who really did it
Author Alice Sebold has been spotted out in public for the first time since the man she accused of raping her 40 years ago had his conviction overturned.
Anthony Broadwater spent 16 years in prison for a 1981 crime he did not commit, and on his release in 1999 struggled to rebuild his life.
The private investigator who helped prove Broadwater's innocence told DailyMail.com he has learned the name of a man who may be the real rapist – and is calling for the criminal case to now be reopened.
Broadwater's name was cleared after a producer working on a Netflix adaptation of Sebold's memoir, which detailed her rape as a student in Syracuse, noticed that there were inconsistencies in the story and sought the help of the private investigator.
Sebold, 58, has not commented on Monday's decision by a New York judge to declare that Broadwater, now 61, had been wrongfully convicted.
On Wednesday she was seen near her $6 million San Francisco home, walking her dog.
Sebold moved to the city in 2007 with her husband, novelist Glen David Gould.
Alice Sebold, 58, was seen on Wednesday taking her dog for a walk near her $6 million San Francisco home
Sebold, 58, has not commented on Broadwater's conviction being overturned
Broadwater has been living in this home in Syracuse, New York (left), since he was released from prison in 1998. He is married but he never had children because he didn't want them to bear the stigma of his rape conviction. He did not know the crime he was wrongly convicted of was what Sebold used to kickstart her career. Sebold now lives in this $6 million home (right) in San Francisco
She moved after publishing her three wildly-successful best-selling books: her memoir, Lucky, in 1999, and two novels - The Lovely Bones, in 2002, and The Almost Moon, in 2007.
Private investigator Dan Myers says he knows the identity of the man who raped Lovely Bones author Alice Sebold
Lucky sold over a million copies and The Lovely Bones 10 million, being turned into a 2010 film by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, starring Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci and Susan Sarandon.
Her writing and the subsequent film adaptations have meant that she has not needed to work, while Broadwater has told of his battle to find work outside prison, eventually working as a janitor and trash collector.
DailyMail.com learned that Broadwater had no idea that she used the story to kickstart her literary career and has been living in 'squalor' since he got out of prison while she has made millions in book sales.
When his private investigator found Broadwater earlier this year, living in a derelict apartment in Syracuse, the town where the rape happened, he was stunned to learn that Sebold had sold over a million copies of Lucky, and gone on to make millions more through The Lovely Bones.
'He was pretty shocked. He is living, this is not an exaggeration, a very squalid existence. Alice Sebold, based on Lucky and The Lovely Bones, is living in a very, very nice home in San Francisco.
'It is not right,' Mucciante told DailyMail.com on Wednesday.
The man who helped Mucciante to secure Broadwater's freedom, investigator Dan Myers, told DailyMail.com a detective who was involved in the original investigation gave him the name of a suspect, who was locked up for committing another sex crime around the time of Sebold's rape.
That man now lives in Syracuse and is listed on New York's sex offender registry, Myers has discovered.
'I know he does still exist,' Myers said. 'He definitely did time in prison, and he's now out.'
Sebold had a $100 Dagne Dover bag slung across her shoulder as she took her terrier-cross for a walk on Wednesday
The private investigator who looked into Sebold's case concluded that she had definitely been raped, but that the wrong man had been convicted
xebold's memoir Lucky told the story of her 1981 attack. The publishers have said there are no plans to rewrite the memoir in the light of the vacation of Broadwater's conviction
Sebold's three books have sold millions of copies worldwide. The Lovely Bones was turned into a 2010 film, and the rights to her memoir were sold for production by Netflix
Sebold identified Broadwater - then a 20 year old man, recently having left the Marines - as she passed him in the street. She picked a different man out in a police line up, but later insisted Broadwater was indeed the one, saying he looked 'identical' to the man she chose in the line up
Sebold is seen returning to her home after her walk with her dog
Lovely Bones author Alice Sebold, right, is yet to comment on the exoneration of Anthony Broadwater, pictured left in court on Monday. In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Myers said a detective who was involved in the original investigation gave him the name of a suspect
This is the 1981 line up of black men that Alice Sebold was told to choose from. Anthony Broadwater is the second from the right, fourth along in the lineup. She picked the man next to him, who was in the fifth position, but was then told by police she had 'failed to identify the suspect'. They were convinced it was Broadwater and she later changed her identification in court, naming him as her attacker. The man in fifth position has not been named and it's unclear why he was in the lineup
The producer Tim Mucciante hired the private investigator to look into the case and lawyers to work on an appeal.
Myers, a detective who retired last year from the Onandago County Sheriff's Office that covers Syracuse, said Mucciante hired him early in the summer.
'With Tim, it started with him wanting detail of the actual rape because they were making a true to life movie and some things didn't add up,' Myers said.
Producer Tim Mucciante called in Myers to look into the case because he was so alarmed by the inconsistencies in the memoir
'He originally just wanted me to find out if this rape had even taken place.
'Then as I went into the investigation, I found out the rape did happen.
'I 100 per cent believe it occurred and that she (Sebold) was the victim of a crime.'
Sebold identified Broadwater in court as her rapist, even though she had identified a different man, standing next to him, in a police lineup months earlier.
She said that the pair were 'identical' and that she had chosen the wrong man in the lineup.
'I don't blame her for what happened,' Myers said.
'I blame the prosecutor and the judge who decide to continue on with the case against Anthony even though she identified the wrong person. I blame the system.'
Sebold didn't name her attacker in her memoir.
Myers said he discovered Broadwater's name in newspaper clippings from the early 1980s. He then spoke with several police contacts he knows, including a retired Syracuse detective who was involved in that 1981 case.
'He shed a lot of light on the investigation,' Myers said.
Shockingly, that detective expressed doubts that they'd arrested the right man.
'He told me he didn't think Anthony Broadwater was the person who committed the crime,' Myers said. 'And he said he might know who did commit it. He had a name.'
'He had a feeling that it was the wrong person and he thought that for many years, and he told me that I should reach out to Anthony and talk to Anthony about it,' he added.
Broadwater, pictured in court on Monday, said he was still crying tears of joy and relief over his exoneration the next day
Broadwater, 61, shook with emotion, sobbing as his head fell into his hands, as the judge in Syracuse vacated his conviction at the request of prosecutors
Anthony Broadwater is pictured on the steps of his home this week, holding a newspaper about his exoneration, with producer Timothy Mucciante, who hired the lawyers who represented him in court after becoming suspicious of the case
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