Prosecutors say a man drugged FIT student Annabel Richter with fentanyl, raped her while she was unconscious, and waited nearly 45 minutes before calling for help, leaving her family shattered.

Annabel Richter was 21, a Fashion Institute of Technology student who left her family behind to chase a career in fashion in New York. In March, prosecutors say, Moises Freire, 19, brought a drug he described as cocaine from Mexico into the Chelsea dorm she shared with a roommate. Both women lost consciousness. First responders gave them Narcan and rushed them to a hospital. Only the roommate survived. Richter died of a fentanyl overdose.

The New York Post reported that court papers describe Freire raping Richter while she was unconscious, taking photos of her naked from the waist down to share with friends, lying to campus security that the women had simply drunk too much, and delaying the call for help for about 45 minutes.

Freire was not an FIT student. How he ended up in the dorm with Richter and her roommate is not clear from the court papers described in the reporting. What is clear is the sequence prosecutors laid out and the charges that followed.

Court papers show he had already called the drug “poison”

A week before the dorm incident, court papers say, Freire tried the fentanyl himself and likened it to “poison” in a text to a friend. On March 18, prosecutors say, he still gave that same dangerous drug to both women in their room.

Both collapsed. After the alleged delay, campus security was contacted. A security guard’s body-worn camera later became central to the state’s account. First responders administered Narcan. Richter did not make it.

At an April court hearing, prosecutor Ariana Bloom zeroed in on Freire’s condition that night compared with the victim’s.

Prosecutor Ariana Bloom told the court:

“It is truly hard to believe that the defendant, who seemed entirely coherent and sober at the time, who didn’t have any of the substance, who is captured on the security guard’s body-worn camera seeming coherent and sober, didn’t know what was going on when he was having sex with the victim who was completely unconscious,”

Freire and his friend Brian Peralta Cabrera, 18, of Queens, were first arrested in March. Both pleaded not guilty to an initial set of charges that did not include the rape allegation. Both remain in custody. Harry Rosales Pino, a third man tied to the case, has already pleaded guilty to narcotics distribution resulting in death.

Court papers were later unsealed. Freire is due back in court Oct. 28 to be arraigned on upgraded charges of distributing a controlled substance with the intent to commit rape, along with other narcotics counts. If convicted on those upgraded charges as described, he faces a minimum of 20 years and a maximum of life in prison.

She left Brazil for New York with no family nearby

Richter’s mother, Flavia Rocha, is a Brazilian poet and journalist. Most of the family was living in Sao Paulo when Annabel headed to college. Her grandmother, Virginia “Gini” Richter, lives in Washington state. A longtime family friend, Christina Perez, told reporters the move worried her because the young woman would be on her own.

Christina Perez, a friend of Richter’s grandmother, said:

“She wanted to go to New York. The idea worried me a bit because she didn’t have anyone there, her family was still in Brazil.”

Perez remembered the student in plain terms.

Perez also said:

“She struck me as very sweet and kind. She was very bright.”

After Richter’s death, the family came to the United States for a memorial service in Portland, Ore. Perez said Richter’s grandmother has been left in shambles and is suffering a great deal. Perez described the parents’ grief as a terrible situation, very, very sad.

Mother asked that her daughter’s story meet justice

A few days after the death, Flavia Rocha posted an Instagram tribute. She shared a childhood photo of her daughter and a poem Annabel had written at age 10 titled “What is Red?”

Flavia Rocha wrote:

“It is with great sorrow that we announce the passing of our daughter Annabel, so dearly loved by all of us. Her light remains alive in our hearts. Forever.”

Rocha later spoke about violence against women and what she wanted from the case.

She said:

“Bel and I would often discuss how women who suffered violence would rarely have a voice. I hope that Annabel’s story brings awareness, and meets justice.”

Prosecutors have now put a detailed account on the record: a drug presented as cocaine, fentanyl that the accused had already treated as poison, an unconscious victim, photos allegedly shared with friends, a false story about alcohol, and a long wait before anyone called campus security. The roommate lived. Annabel Richter did not.

Freire remains in custody ahead of the Oct. 28 arraignment on the upgraded charges. Peralta Cabrera remains locked up on the narcotics conspiracy case tied to getting the lethal fentanyl. Rosales Pino has already admitted narcotics distribution resulting in death.

A young woman crossed an ocean for fashion school, trusted the wrong person in a Chelsea dorm, and never got to finish what she came to build. Accountability in court is the least the system owes her family now.