St. Kate's

Four Days, a Bathtub, and a Trip to the Dining Hall: How a St. Kate's Student Escaped Her Own Dorm Room

AI-generated · every claim is source-linked

Thursday, September 7, 2023MNdating violencetimely warningmedium confidence

Confirmed Threat

From September 7 to 10, 2023, a St. Catherine University student was held captive, beaten, and raped by her boyfriend in her own dorm room, who at one point "waterboarded" her in the bathtub by covering her mouth with a wet washcloth. She escaped on the fourth day by convincing him to let her get food from the dining hall and instead went straight to campus Public Safety, which arrested Keanu Labatte, 19, still inside her room.

Alerts: 2
Response: —
Killed: 0
Injured: 1

Institution

St. Catherine University

Private Masters · MN

~3,400 studentsLiveSafe

Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

2 messages in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTEmailSunday, September 10, 2023, after the victim escaped and reported the assault to campus Public Safety

Approximate reconstructionReconstructed around a phrase university spokesperson Sarah Voigt confirmed to the Star Tribune, that residence-hall students were told 'there was no ongoing threat'; the complete text of the Sunday notification was not published211 chars

St. Catherine University residence-hall students are being notified of a recent incident investigated by campus Public Safety involving an arrest in a residence hall. There is no ongoing threat to the community.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

University spokesperson Sarah Voigt confirmed administrators notified residence-hall students on Sunday, September 10, 2023, the day the victim escaped and Labatte was arrested inside her room, that there was no ongoing threat; this entry reconstructs a plausible full message around that confirmed phrase and is marked isVerbatimConfirmed:false

The narrow, residence-hall-only scope of this first notification reflects that the threat was a single, already-arrested individual rather than a danger to the wider campus

Voigt separately explained that Public Safety and Residence Life staff do not listen at dorm room doors out of respect for student privacy, which is part of why the four-day assault went undetected until the victim herself reported it

FOLLOW-UPEmailTuesday, September 12, 2023, two days after the arrest

Approximate reconstruction321 chars

St. Catherine University is sending this community-wide message regarding a recent incident on campus that resulted in an arrest. Public Safety and law enforcement responded appropriately, and there is no continuing danger to the community. Counseling and support resources remain available to any student who needs them.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

This second, wider community-wide message went out two days after the Sunday residence-hall-only notice, once the university had more time to assess the incident and prepare a broader communication

St. Catherine subsequently declined further comment beyond a September 14, 2023 statement citing student confidentiality and the integrity of the ongoing investigation

The gap between the Sunday and Tuesday messages illustrates a common two-stage pattern in campus dating-violence notifications: an immediate, narrowly scoped alert to the directly affected building, followed by a fuller community message once initial facts are confirmed

Context

Background

St. Catherine University is a Catholic university in St. Paul, Minnesota, with a women's undergraduate college and coeducational graduate and professional programs. According to a criminal complaint reported by the Star Tribune, Keanu Labatte, the boyfriend of a St. Catherine student, arrived at her dorm room on September 7, 2023 already enraged over texts and social media content he had discovered, and held her captive for four days, during which he raped her, strangled her until she "felt lightheaded and saw stars," and, on the Saturday, forced her into the bathtub and "engaged in waterboarding by covering her mouth with a wet washcloth," according to the complaint. She escaped on Sunday, September 10, by convincing Labatte to let her get food from the dining hall; instead she went directly to campus Public Safety, who arrested Labatte, still in her room. University spokesperson Sarah Voigt told the Star Tribune that residence-hall students were notified the same Sunday that there was no ongoing threat, and that a community-wide message followed on Tuesday, September 12. Labatte was charged with three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, domestic assault by strangulation, and threats of violence, and later pleaded guilty to an amended charge, receiving a sentence of up to 7.5 years.

Analysis

Key Findings

The assault lasted four full days inside a single residence-hall room before the victim escaped it herself under the pretext of a dining-hall trip; no one else in the building detected the ongoing crime

The university issued a narrowly scoped notice to residence-hall students the same day of the arrest, then a broader community-wide message two days later, an honest two-stage pattern rather than a single instantaneous alert

The university's own explanation for the four-day gap, that Public Safety staff do not listen at dorm room doors out of respect for privacy, surfaces a real tension between residential privacy norms and detecting in-progress violence

Labatte pleaded guilty to an amended charge and was sentenced to up to 7.5 years, resolving the case roughly 14 months after the assault

Outcome

Keanu Avery Labatte, 19 (later reported as 20), of Granite Falls, Minnesota, was charged with three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, domestic assault by strangulation, and threats of violence. He pleaded guilty to an amended charge of second-degree criminal sexual conduct in a deal that dismissed the other four charges, and was sentenced to up to 7.5 years in prison.

Provenance

Sources

Cite this case

Campus Alert Archive. "St. Catherine University: Four Days, a Bathtub, and a Trip to the Dining Hall: How a St. Kate's Student Escaped Her Own Dorm Room." Incident of September 7, 2023. Added July 2026. https://campusalertarchive.com/case/st-catherine-university-dorm-captivity-2023-09-07/

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Alert text quoted on this page remains the work of the issuing institution; the archive is a secondary source.

Alert Sequence

Background

Key Findings

Sources

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