3 Men Sought in Dana Point Home Invasion, Rape

A man who raped an 18-year-old woman in an apartment while his two friends held four other people at gunpoint is still being sought by authorities, the Sheriff’s Department said Wednesday.

The attack occurred early Tuesday in the 23700 block of Mariner Drive, Sheriff’s Lt. Dick Olson said.

“Apparently the victim, her 20-year-old boyfriend and three other people were in the apartment when the three suspects arrived,” Olson said. “They asked for the person who rents the apartment by name but were told he was not there.”

The three armed men then forced their way into the apartment. Two of the intruders watched over the others in the apartment while the third man went into a bedroom where the woman was and raped her, Olson said.

“We have an indication that these people had all seen each other at some time or (other) and that the suspects had been inside the apartment before,” Olson said.

After the attack, the three gunmen waited in the apartment for the man they had originally asked for but eventually left.

No one else in the apartment was injured. Olson would not say if the woman or the four other people in the apartment at the time of the attack lived there.

Olson said the attack is “in no way related” to a rape that occurred at a Laguna Beach cove early Tuesday. No arrests have been made in that attack, during which an 18-year-old La Habra woman was raped at gunpoint and her 20-year-old boyfriend was bound and robbed by men suspected of being gang members and wielding a shotgun and a baseball bat.