Police Hunt for Victim’s Attacker

Police officers Friday began going door-to-door in downtown Ventura showing a picture of a 23-year-old woman who has lain in a coma since being beaten a week ago.

They hope to find people who can tell them what she was doing and whom she was with at the time of the attack.

The woman, Michelle Green, was found last Saturday morning behind a trash dumpster in the 800 block of Poinsettia Place, an alley behind businesses and homes that front Main Street.

Authorities said they don’t want to wait for her to awaken to tell them what happened.

“We’re worried about the trail getting cold already,” police Lt. Jay Wilson said. “We’d like to get things to a conclusion as quick as we can.”

Green was unemployed. She was last seen by acquaintances shortly before midnight in the downtown area, Wilson said.

When found, she had been beaten severely with a piece of two-by-four found spattered with blood, Wilson said. She had severe cuts, swelling and black eyes. A splinter about an inch wide and seven inches long was broken in two and was in her mouth. Wilson refused to elaborate on how it might have got there, saying that police know some things that only the assailant does.

Green is about 5-foot-5 and weighs 165 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes.

She was wearing a hooded black zippered sweat shirt, a pink blouse with a white design, black pants and leather sandals. She was found nude from the waist down, her pants nearby.

Wilson said investigators have interviewed between 50 and 100 people.