Friday, April 13, 2007

Rapist/killer on the loose in Dallas

A $10,000 reward was announced Wednesday for information leading to the arrest and indictment of a suspect in the attack of a 25-year-old Frisco woman.
Schepps Dairy of Dallas is behind the reward offer, which will remain in effect for six months.
The victim was bound, raped and stabbed several times Tuesday morning by a man authorities believe is responsible for 18 other home invasions in the Dallas area during the last two years.
Around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, a man carrying a sawed-off shotgun broke the glass in the back door of the woman’s apartment.
“It was a dynamic entry, the way that he came into that back door by breaking the glass,” Frisco police Sgt. Gina McFarlin said. “It’s scary, and I can understand why our residents are so concerned.”
He stole cash and her bank card, which he used to withdraw money from an automated teller machine 30 miles away in Southlake about 4:30 a.m.
The victim lives alone on the ground floor at The Vineyards apartments in the 9400 block of Wade Boulevard, east of Preston Road. In addition to being bound and sexually assaulted, she suffered multiple knife wounds in the stomach and chest, Sgt. McFarlin said. After the attack, the woman managed to crawl across the hall with her hands tied behind her back and alerted a neighbor by slamming her body against a door.
Police did not release the woman’s name because she is a sexual assault victim. She was airlifted to Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, where she underwent surgery. Her condition was not available late Tuesday. Barring any infection, she will survive, Sgt. McFarlin said.
Frisco police are asking for the public’s help in catching the assailant. He is described as a black man who is about 6 feet tall with a stocky build and was wearing black and blue Franklin batting gloves, a hooded black overcoat and a white cloth over his face.
“We suspect this is going to be linked to home invasions that began in May 2005,” Sgt. McFarlin said. “This would be the 19th.”
Given the assailant’s description and modus operandi, authorities think he’s targeting ground-floor apartments with a television or light on by breaking the glass of back doors, with a sawed-off shotgun and duffel bag or backpack in hand.
In November 2005, Plano police suspected two home invasions during one week were linked. One of those involved a man wearing a bandanna and wielding a shotgun. He broke into a Plano woman’s apartment on Ohio Drive between Plano Parkway and McDermott Road.
Police said he threatened her with a short-barreled shotgun, took her ATM card and sexually assaulted her, but didn’t steal any money.
At that time, authorities believed that up to10 incidents in Dallas, Coppell, Richardson and Garland reported in May and June 2005 were linked. The attacker carried a shotgun and hid his face behind a blue or red bandanna.
In May 2006, police said a man who sexually assaulted a 26-year-old woman in Far North Dallas may have been responsible for a series of assaults and a slaying in Plano.
“He murdered one man and, in another case, shot two girls,” Sgt. McFarlin said. “We know he’s been willing to hurt people before.”

No comments: