Encino Man Held in Serial Child Molestations : Crime: The latest of four men is arrested as a possible suspect. Urging caution, police say the actual attacker may still be at large.

An Encino man was arrested as a suspect in the molestation of as many as 32 people--almost all of whom were teen-agers or children--throughout the San Fernando Valley. But LAPD officials cautioned the public Saturday that the serial molester may still be at large.

Police arrested and booked Elliot Singletary, 45, Friday evening in connection with the serial molestations, LAPD Sgt. John Herkowitz said.

“He fits the composite, but it doesn’t mean he is the guy we’re looking for,” Herkowitz said of Singletary. The LAPD is scheduled to make an additional announcement Tuesday regarding the arrest.

Singletary has not been formally charged, but police have 48 hours after an arrest to determine whether they will ask the district attorney’s office to file charges. Saturdays and Sundays are not included in the 48-hour limit.

Singletary is one of four men police have arrested over the last three weeks as a possible suspect in the molestations, and at least some of them were later eliminated as suspects. In one of the cases, a man arrested Nov. 23 was not formally ruled out in the police investigation until five days later.

Beefed-up police patrols near Valley schools--initiated a month ago following the rape of a 9-year-old girl--will continue Monday.

Police believe the molester claimed his two latest victims Friday.

In one incident, a man approached two young girls as they carried trash to a dumpster near a driveway at Van Nuys Elementary School. He grabbed at one of the girls, who managed to struggle free. Another student was attacked on her way to the same school Tuesday.

Also Friday, a man in a vehicle pulled up to a 12-year-old girl as she walked to Robert A. Millikan Junior High School in Sherman Oaks and asked her if she wanted a ride, police said.

Following the pair of incidents Friday, Los Angeles police revised the number attributed to the suspect to 32, adding four attacks they previously believed were unrelated.

The attacks have included male and female victims ranging in age from 5 to 21 years old who have been black, white, Asian and Latino. The molester attacked his victims during mornings and afternoons and, in at least 20 cases, when the children were near or on their way to Valley schools.

The most serious attacks include the Nov. 3 rape of a 9-year-old Fullbright Avenue Elementary School student and an incident July 30 when a man approached a 5-year-old boy at a West Valley apartment complex and offered him money and candy in exchange for letting him fondle his genitals, police said.

In many of the other cases, victims have been approached by a man who engages them in conversation and then grabs at their crotches, police said.