Suspect Sought in Beating of 77-Year-Old : Crime: Robert Paul Moore Jr. is accused in the sexual assault of a woman whom neighbors discovered tied up in her mobile home two days after the incident.

Police said Wednesday they are searching for a 31-year-old, part-time gardener who has been accused of beating and sexually assaulting a 77-year-old woman, leaving her tied up in her mobile home for two days before neighbors found her.

Robert Paul Moore Jr. lived for years at the mobile home park in the 20500 block of Beach Boulevard with his parents and worked part time there, offering gardening and home health-care services for the elderly, bathing them and keeping them company, the manager said.

Huntington Beach Police Lt. Dan Johnson said the woman, whose name is being withheld because of the nature of the crime, knew Moore and allowed him in her home.

The assault occurred last Thursday night, and neighbors who checked on the woman Saturday evening found her bound and severely beaten, Johnson said.

“She was pretty badly beaten. She also had some problem with blood circulation-type injuries because she was tied for two days,” Johnson said. “I’ve seen the pictures. It’s not pretty.”

Police identified Moore as the suspect Wednesday. A warrant was issued at Municipal Court in Westminster, accusing Moore of burglary, robbery, sexual assault, assault with a deadly weapon and grand theft auto. The bail on the warrant is set at $500,000, Johnson said.

Police say they believe Moore fled in the woman’s light blue 1989 Cadillac, which was recovered Sunday by San Ysidro police and has since been returned to Huntington Beach for use as evidence.

The suspect beat the woman with his fists, Johnson said. She remains hospitalized in stable condition at UCI Medical Center in Orange. Johnson said that because she has not had an opportunity to return home, she does not know whether anything else was stolen.

The manager of the mobile home park said Moore had lived with his parents at the park since at least the mid-1980s, when it was a family park. In 1989, it became a senior park for people 55 years of age and older, but younger people who had been living there before were allowed to stay.

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“I don’t know much about the boy. He was a part-time gardener for some of the people. He was also a part time home-care nurse,” said the manager, who asked not to be named. “He would go in and help with the bathing. He would just stay with them. The families would hire him.”

The manager said Moore had gotten into some kind of a fight and had spent some time in jail. When he was released “a few months ago,” Moore did not move back in with his parents, who still live at the park and are devastated by the allegations against their son, the manager said.

“I was amazed when I heard it was him that did the attack,” he said. “I just can’t grasp it.”

Moore had worked for the victim, the manager said.

At 7:15 p.m. Saturday, concerned neighbors went to check on her and found her bound and gagged, the manager said.

“Her car was gone. They hadn’t seen her, and her cat was out, so they went to check on her,” he said.

The attack has shaken residents at the park, many of whom had welcomed Moore into their homes.

“Everybody’s calling me and giving us every suggestion to stop this kind of thing,” the manager said. “We need gates at the front and we need cameras and this and that. But I said, ‘There isn’t a thing we could do about it if it’s someone you know and you open the door for them.’ ”

Johnson would not reveal the nature of Moore’s prior brushes with police, but Huntington Beach police have arrested him before. The Police Department’s most recent booking photo of Moore is from 1991, Johnson said.

Moore is white, six feet tall, 190 pounds, and bald with blue eyes and a red mustache. Johnson said he should be considered extremely dangerous. Police said they believe Moore is a transient and does not own a car.

Anyone with information regarding Moore should call Detective Dave Bunetta at (714) 536-5960 or Sgt. Ron Burgess at (714) 536-5947.