The Stephanie Roper murder involved a Frostburg State University student who in the early 1980s was raped, beaten, shot, set afire, and partially dismembered. Stephanie was home on a college break, and she and a friend were returning from a West End Washington, D.C. bar, the "Twenty-Second Amendment" late at night. After dropping her friend off near Clinton, Maryland, Stephanie proceeded toward her own home in Croom, Maryland, but steered into a ditch on a dark rural road and was offered a ride by a man and his teenage friend driving by. The two males kidnapped Stephanie and took her to an abandoned farmhouse at Oakville, St. Mary's County. There she was tortured and raped repeatedly. One of the men called the other by his first name. Afraid now that Stephanie knew his name, they decided to kill her. In order to hinder identification, the murderers burned her body and severed her hands and head. They were captured after the younger man bragged about his part in the crime, and were tried and sentenced to prison by both counties involved. Their relatively lenient sentences, two concurrent life sentences, caused public outrage. In life, Stephanie was a beautiful and talented artist. Her mother, Roberta Roper, has taken on the cause of victim rights, including the right of victims' families to speak to court juries. She actively lobbies and speaks on behalf of victims and crime survivors. She has dedicated her life to the cause and formed the Stephanie Roper Foundation and Committee, now known as the Maryland Crime Victims' Resource Center, Inc.[1]
The Crime Victims' Rights Act of 2004 was named, in part, for Stephanie Roper, whose parents were not notified of trial continuances, were excluded from proceedings, and were prevented from giving a victim impact statement.[2][3]