Same Man May Have Attacked 3 Women

The man who raped an Ojai woman Thursday morning could be responsible for two other assaults in the Ojai area this year, officials said Saturday.

“We think it might be the same person. If we get him identified, it could tie them all together. But until we do, we can’t say for sure,” said Sgt. Tom Odle of the Sheriff’s Department.

Victims of the three attacks have given similar descriptions of their assailant, officials said.

The suspect is described as in his mid-20s, slender, about 5 feet 6 inches tall with light brown skin, dark brown hair and brown or hazel eyes.

On Thursday, a 25-year-old Ojai woman reported that she was raped about 1:30 a.m. after she was dragged into a downtown mini-mall at the corner of Aliso and North Signal streets.

The woman told police that she made a call from a public phone on Matilija Street and was walking back to her apartment when she was accosted, Odle said. When the man let her go, he drove away in a yellow car, Odle said.

On March 16, a 20-year-old Meiners Oaks woman was jogging through a field on Maricopa Highway north of Nordhoff High School in mid-afternoon when a man grabbed her.

Passersby heard her screams and ran to help her. The man rode off on a yellow mountain bike and eluded deputies.

On June 24, deputies who answered a resident’s call of hearing screams about 9 p.m. encountered a woman struggling with a man on the ground in Nordhoff Cemetery at Cuyama and Del Norte roads. The man fled.

That 25-year-old woman told police that her car broke down and that she was looking for a phone when the man dragged her into the cemetery.