A serial rapist that has alluded police since 1996 has struck again and this time he may have left a clue. The fact that there have been unexplained gaps in his crimes may indicate that he was either incarcerated during a lapse in his crime spree.
A woman was accosted in South L.A. by a gun-wielding man who tried to sexually assault her in an alley before being spooked, police said Thursday.
The 29-year-old woman was alone about 5:30 a.m. June 15 when she was approached by a man near 25th Street and Naomi Avenue, investigators said.
After trying to talk to her, the man stuck a handgun in her face and forced her into an alley, where he attempted to sexually assault her. But the man became frightened when a vehicle pulled into the alley, and he fled on foot. The attack, according to investigators, resembles those by the Teardrop Rapist.
The serial rapist has been linked through DNA samples and other evidence to a series of attacks in Los Angeles over the last decade and a half. His last previously announced attack came in November when a 15-year-old in southwest L.A. was pulled into a yard and sexually assaulted during the early morning hours.
The Teardrop Rapist is believed to be responsible for 35 attacks beginning in 1996. Investigators said at least 11 of the attacks have been linked through DNA.
Police, who released a panel of sketches of the suspect drawn over the years, noted that there are unexplained gaps in the attacks. Read more.
Source: LA Times
