A wall-sized picture of a young woman captured the gazes of hundreds of students, including many Greeks, as they gathered at the Holmes Student Center’s Carl Sandburg Auditorium on Wednesday night to listen to Andrea Cooper tell “Kristin’s Story.”

Kristin, Andrea’s only child, was the woman in the picture.

The auditorium fell silent as Andrea shared the story of her daughter’s trail into depression and despair after being raped and keeping it a secret from her parents.

Andrea talked about how her daughter’s anguish silently consumed her until she took her own life on Dec. 31, 1995.

Students fought back tears and some left the room as she described in detail coming home with her husband at 2 a.m. to find her daughter on the ground, having shot herself in the head.

“It was just so touching. It hit close to home,” freshman undecided major Megan Snell said.

Cooper detailed the discovery of her daughter’s note, which revealed her agony and the single, earth-shattering question: “Do you know what it feels like to be raped?”

More students left the room as Andrea read the poem her daughter had written describing what it felt like to be raped.

Andrea chronicled her struggle to find out who raped her daughter.

Although detectives told Andrea there was almost nothing they could do without Kristin’s testimony, she had to look for the truth herself.

She explained how she made her peace by talking to Kristin’s friends, finding out who she believed was responsible for Kristin’s rape and writing him a letter.

“I’ll never get over Kristin’s death,” Andrea said. “I just learn to keep going.”

She finished with a message to students to look for signs of suicide and depression. She also asked the many men in the audience about how devastated they would feel about anything happening to their sisters or girlfriends.

Men nodded their heads with fast agreement.

“It’s upsetting. I have a little sister,” sophomore management major Joe Menzione said.

She drove the reality of her message home by saying, “I took my daughter to college. I never imagined a year and a half later, she’d be dead.”

Kristin was a student at Baker University in Kansas.

The audience exploded with applause as Andrea thanked everyone for coming and listening to Kristin’s story.

The event was sponsored by Delta Delta Delta and Alpha Chi Omega sororities.