Elderly Woman Raped; May Be Victim of Man Sought in Killings

An 84-year-old San Gabriel woman was raped early Sunday by an intruder who entered her home through an open window, and a task force of law enforcement officers was trying to determine whether she is the latest victim of an attacker who is suspected in several killings.

The woman was hospitalized in good condition, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.

Officers from six law enforcement agencies have joined to search for a suspected killer blamed for at least six--and possibly as many as 13--slayings in which victims were shot, bludgeoned or stabbed. Also under investigation as possible crimes by the same suspect are at least 15 rapes, beatings and kidnapings in the last six months, including three cases in which children were abducted and sexually molested.

Most of the crimes occurred in the San Gabriel Valley. But cases under investigation range from Diamond Bar, in the eastern part of the county--where a man was shot to death and his wife assaulted Thursday--to Northridge in the San Fernando Valley, where a man and wife were awakened last Tuesday by an intruder who shot them both in the head. Both of the Northridge victims escaped with minor wounds.

In both cases last week, the victims were attacked by a man who entered their bedrooms late at night after getting into the house through an open door or window, a technique common to many of the crimes.

Sheriff’s Department homicide detectives were investigating Sunday’s rape “to determine if this incident is related to the other San Gabriel Valley assaults,” a spokesman said. Unlike the other cases under investigation, the 84-year-old woman’s attacker wore a mask, the spokesman said.

The woman was not beaten, he said. It was not revealed whether the attacker carried a weapon.

25 Detectives on Case

The case has been added to the possibly related crimes being investigated by a task force that includes about 25 detectives from the Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles, Arcadia, Glendale, Monrovia and Monterey Park police departments.

Sheriff Sherman Block told a news conference Thursday that “there’s definitely a killer out there” and that “six or seven cases appear to be pretty clearly the work of the same individual.” He warned against leaving windows or doors open or unlocked on warm nights.

Authorities made public a composite drawing of a suspect, assembled from victims’ descriptions, of a man 25 to 30 years old, about 6 feet tall, weighing about 160 pounds, with curly brown hair and teeth that are badly stained and have a gap in front.