Description Released of Suspect in Moreno Valley Killing, Rapes

Sheriff’s deputies released a description Wednesday of the man they believe raped two girls and killed one of them near Moreno Valley on Monday.

Based on information supplied by the surviving victim, the attacker was a white male in his late 30s, about six feet tall with a thin build. He had blond or light brown hair, and may have worn a mustache.

The man wore blue jeans and a red baseball cap with a yellow patch bearing the word “Cat,” a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department spokesman said. The attacker drove a brown, two-door compact car with an orange towel on its dashboard and an unspecified sticker on the bumper.

According to investigators, the two girls accepted a ride from the man in the La Sierra section of Riverside and rode with him to a remote, brush-covered area between Moreno Valley and Redlands.

There he killed 14-year-old Diane Harper of Riverside and raped her 13-year-old friend. He released the younger girl in Moreno Valley, where she contacted authorities.

An autopsy completed late Wednesday revealed that Harper suffered “a massive cerebral contusion due to a trauma of the head,” said Rick Bogan, Riverside County deputy coroner. The murder weapon was “probably a rock,” he said.

The autopsy also showed that the girl had engaged in sexual intercourse near the time of her death, Bogan said. “There was no violent evidence of rape, (but) it’s still under investigation.”