Man Rapes 2 and Attacks 3rd Woman in 3-City Spree

Police were searching for a man who raped two women and attempted to assault a third Monday during a four-hour rampage in Irvine, Tustin and Costa Mesa, authorities said.

Costa Mesa Officer Chano Camarillo said the same attacker, a slim, six-foot black man wearing a gray sweat shirt, jeans and cowboy boots, is believed to be responsible for all three incidents.

“We are working with (Irvine and Tustin police) on this case . . . . We’re trying to tie this case together,” said Camarillo, explaining that the three victims gave police similar descriptions of the attacker. The man is not believed to be armed, he added.

The assailant attacked the first victim, an Irvine woman, about 2 p.m. Monday and also stole the woman’s pickup truck, Camarillo said. Irvine police refused to offer any details on the case, but confirmed the Costa Mesa officer’s account.

Less than three hours later, he raped a Tustin woman and sped off in the vehicle stolen from the first victim, police said.

At 5:35 p.m., the man drove up to a Costa Mesa apartment complex and tried to force his way into a young woman’s apartment through a sliding glass door.

The woman demanded to know what he wanted, and the intruder said he needed to leave a note for a neighbor, Camarillo said. When the victim returned to the door with a pad and pencil, the man kicked it open and forced his way inside her living room.

After a quick search for jewelry, furs and money, he took the woman into her bedroom and ordered her to undress, saying that he was going to rape her, police said.

The victim began to disrobe but was interrupted by a phone call in her kitchen. The intruder grabbed a knife, held it to the woman’s throat and ordered her not to say anything about the attack, Camarillo said.

When she hung up, the man took the woman back into her bedroom and again ordered her to undress. At that moment, the women looked out the window and said her husband was driving up to the building, police said. The man ordered the woman into a closet, threatening to kill her and her husband if she said anything.

The victim told police that her attacker then “casually walked out the front door,” while she ran out of the closet and left the building by a back entrance. As she ran toward her husband’s car, she encountered the assailant getting into the stolen pickup truck, but the man made no effort to grab her before speeding away, Camarillo said.

Police refused to reveal the license number of the stolen pickup truck but described it as a black Datsun with a white camper shell.