Dana Beatty: Where is the Survivor Now?

In the episode titled ‘Unmasking the Monster’ of NBC’s ‘Dateline,’ the primary focus is on the horrific sexual assault endured by a young Cincinnati, Ohio, resident named Dana Beatty in August 1989. For decades, the detectives couldn’t find the man responsible for the attack. Finally, in 2024, thanks to DNA evidence, law enforcement finally had a lead in the case. The survivor features in the documentary and recounts her experience and how the incident affected her life.

Dana Beatty Was Brutally Attacked in Her Home in 1989

In 1989, Dana Neufeld Beatty, then Dana Sandbo, lived at the Columbia-Tusculum condominium in Cincinnati, Ohio. On the fateful evening of August 1 that year, she was ambushed after she returned home from work by a masked man, who repeatedly sexually assaulted her for more than five hours. After the traumatic incident, the police collected DNA evidence of the attacker from Dana’s body and began looking for the perpetrator. However, the case remained cold for decades, until her daughter pushed for the investigation to be reopened.

In 2024, the DNA evidence soon led them to Dana’s then-husband, Frederick Louis Tanzer, a former physician. Due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for his crimes, the authorities could not charge him with rape. So, in December 2024, they arrested him for lying to the investigators. In September 2025, he reportedly pleaded guilty to three counts of giving false statements to the authorities about the sexual assault of Dana Beatty, for which he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Dana Beatty is Hoping to Change the Laws Surrounding Statutes of Limitations Through Her Advocacy

A few years after surviving the attack, Dana Beatty married the love of her life and gave birth to her beloved daughter, Andra Beatty, who grew up and eventually played a crucial role in the capture of her alleged attacker. In addition to graduating with a psychology major and business minor from Wittenberg University in 1981, Dana has earned Executive Certification from Harvard University and Harvard Business School Executive Education. Looking back on her days at Wittenberg University, she called it “one of the most meaningful and transformational experiences.” In her junior and senior years, she was also the president of her sorority, Chi Omega. Dana was also a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, Psi Chi, and Panhellenic Council.

In the early stages of her professional career, she also interned at a company in Camarillo, California, working with adolescents with acute psychosis. From January 1994 to October 2014, Dana served as a loyal and hardworking employee at IBM, starting as a Client Executive. Moving up the ranks, she worked as a Software Sales Executive, Client Director, Client Unit Director, and Client Value Initiative Leader, before becoming the Director of Global Competitive Strategy and Sales. In 2016, Dana joined KPMG LLC as a Senior Relationship Director, but retired in December 2019. Being an active member of the community, she has been a longtime Board Member of Christine’s Christmas and a former member of Columbus Children’s Choir.

Dana was also previously associated with the American Heart Association as a ‘Circle of Red’ member and a former member of the Senior Leadership Team at Go Red For Women. The resident of Columbus, Ohio, has been going for therapy sessions for decades since the 1989 incident, as she still endures a state of anxiety and deals with post-traumatic stress disorder, night terrors, chronic insomnia, and panic attacks. Although Frederick Louis Tanzer is serving time in prison, she is suing him separately to hold him accountable for what he did to her. As of today, she continues to advocate for changes to statutes of limitations in order to bring the perpetrators to justice even years after the commission of crimes. On the personal front, she is a proud and doting mother to her daughter Andra, with whom she maintains a close bond.

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