Precautions Are Urged for Women After Attacks : Ojai Valley: Investigators fear assaults may be the work of a serial rapist. Deputies have no solid suspect.

Fearful that they are dealing with a serial rapist, sheriff’s deputies are urging older women who live alone in the Ojai Valley to secure their homes against a masked man whom detectives have linked to four sexual assaults since March.

The attacks, including two on Sept. 2, have led “us to believe that there is the formation of a serial rapist here,” Sheriff’s Lt. Larry Robertson said. “Our fear is that the more success that he enjoys, the more he endeavors to feed his appetite.”

By contrast, no rapes were reported in Ojai last year and only two in 1992.

Investigators had interviewed about 20 potential suspects by late Thursday, but none was considered a solid suspect, Robertson said. “There is a long list of possible candidates, and one by one, they’re being eliminated.”

The assailant, described as a soft-spoken red-haired man in his mid-20s who wears a nylon-stocking mask and smells of cigarettes, has targeted older women--three in west Ojai and nearby Meiners Oaks and one in the eastern valley about four miles away, Robertson said.

Investigators are also searching for a mini-truck--a light blue Chevrolet S-10 with a white cab-high camper--that a man fitting the rapist’s description was seen driving away from one of the women’s homes.

Sheriff’s Lt. Jim Barrett, commander of the Ojai station, said the suspect typically has entered through unlocked doors or windows during pre-dawn hours and awakened his victims in their bedrooms.

Because of the concentration of attacks and because detectives believe the rapist might live in the area, up to 70 deputies and volunteers spent about 400 hours walking Meiners Oaks on Sept. 2 and Saturday, Barrett said.

The beefed-up presence continues, particularly at night, Robertson said.

“We contacted just about everybody we could,” Barrett said. “The purpose was not only to develop leads . . . but also to increase personal awareness, to get people to be watchful.”

As the search continued Thursday, Ojai residents flooded the sheriff’s local station with tips that the rapist had been seen.

“I don’t believe that we’ve ever had this many calls, unless we’ve had a fire,” dispatcher Bonnie Bohrn said.

The suspect, according to a composite drawing distributed to residents, has short auburn hair, a short reddish beard--but no mustache--and walks with a slight limp. He is about 5-foot-8 and weighs about 150 pounds, according to victims’ accounts. He was last seen wearing a green T-shirt and tennis shoes.

About 1,000 flyers with the composite drawing had been handed out to residents by Thursday.

In the latest attack, a 54-year-old woman was raped 10:30 a.m. last Friday in her home on El Jina Lane, just east of the city. Earlier that day, a 64-year-old woman was sexually assaulted before dawn in her house on Taormina Lane in west Ojai.

Robertson, who heads the department’s major crimes unit, said a man fitting the suspect’s description also walked in on two girls about 7:45 a.m. Friday in a house on Ojai Avenue, not far from the first assault.

The man fled when he saw the young girls, leading detectives to suspect his focus is on older women, the lieutenant said.

In the first of the four attacks, a 44-year-old woman was raped about 3 a.m. on March 13 in her house on Pueblo Avenue in Meiners Oaks, Robertson said.

Only a few blocks away, on April 16, a 61-year-old woman thwarted a sexual assault about 1:30 a.m. in her house on Carillo Road in Ojai, he added.

In the latter case, however, the woman became combative and broke free, Robertson said. “And there was a great deal of time that went by before he attacked again.”

Yet another telltale aspect of the rapist’s behavior “is that he seems to be somewhat apologetic in his demeanor,” Robertson said. And because each assault occurred on a Friday or Saturday, investigators think the suspect might be employed.

Although detectives have compared notes with other law enforcement agencies--including those in other states--no other cases appear to be related, Robertson said.