A woman lived with “secrets” for over 15 years before she walked into a Fort Collins, Colorado police station and said Frederick Fenderson raped her as a child, Deputy Prosecutor Maureen Koonce said Tuesday.

Fenderson, 64, of Gary, was charged in December 2020 with child molesting and sexual misconduct with a minor.

The victim, then 29, told a Colorado detective in 2019 that Fenderson sexually assaulted her in Gary from age 7 to 14. The worst happened from 2002 to 2004.

Koonce told jurors that the abuse started in a Kansas shelter.

The victim told her mother, who died in 2015. She blew it off, saying it was “just a nightmare,” Koonce said.

In Gary, Fenderson forced the victim, then a preteen, in 2002 to have sex with him in a basement. Court records allege he covered her mouth and told her he wouldn’t impregnate her.

In a different incident, Fenderson threatened her after he raped her. The girl had grabbed a knife to get out. He showed her a shotgun.

“I’ll throw your dead body in the woods and rape your dead body,” he said, according to an affidavit.

The victim told her older sister and a childhood classmate what happened, and later an Indiana Department of Child Services caseworker.

He continued to sexually abuse the victim until the mother moved the family back to Colorado as a DCS case opened. Fenderson stayed in Gary.

Defense lawyer Casey McCloskey argued there was little other evidence, including no referral, investigation, medical records, psychological referral or witnesses. She only went to police after the mother died, he said.

Fenderson muttered briefly during Koonce’s opening statement, disputing what she said. He later apologized to Judge Gina Jones. A juror was also dismissed Tuesday after he said he knew the victim’s sister.

Records show Fenderson was sentenced in 1992 for child molesting and criminal confinement. He was released in 1998.

Fenderson faces up to 60 years. Under Indiana’s laws at the time, if convicted, he would serve half of any sentence.

The trial continues this week.

mcolias@post-trib.com