"It was a shock," said Cook, who found out from a neighbor about two weeks after she moved in last April.

But even before a suspect's arrest last week, Cook didn't worry much.

Several residents of the apartment complex interviewed this week shared her sentiments -- relief that a suspect is in custody but not very worried to begin with.

Some of the ease may stem from the fact that the crime happened so long ago. Many were not around when it happened.

Nobody told Norma Ortega about the crime, either, when she moved to Bridgeport two years ago from New Mexico. When she did learn of the crime about a year ago it made her a little uneasy.

"I didn't know what had happened and that was alarming," said Ortega. But she said she was only mildly concerned.

Drew Planten is accused of raping and killing 23-year-old Stephanie Bennett in 2002.

Still unresolved is a lawsuit filed last year by Bennett's father, Carmon Bennett of Rocky Mount, Va., against Bridgeport's owner, Chicago-based Equity Asset Management Corp. The suit, which is tied up in federal court, claims shrubs in front of the bedroom window were at "unreasonable heights and widths," and made it easy for peeping Toms.

A month before the murder, a man was seen crouched behind bushes, peeping inside the apartment, according to the lawsuit.

Though Bridgeport management did not return calls before press time, gone are the high, thick bushes the lawsuit cites.

As for Cook, she's moving. But not because of the crime -- Her family is moving into a house.

"I definitely feel safe here," said Cook. "It's a nice, quiet neighborhood."