Police Release Sketch of Suspect in 3 Sexual Attacks

Los Angeles and Burbank police Wednesday released a drawing of a man they believe is responsible for three sexual assaults on women in the past month, including the attack of an elderly Burbank woman after her assailant forced his way into her home in broad daylight.

Los Angeles Police Capt. Richard Wahler, calling the assailant “particularly dangerous,” said the attacks showed no discernible pattern, involving a young woman and elderly woman in their homes within the last eight days, and a 36-year-old victim last month in a Burbank parking structure.

“The wide range of ages [of the victims] makes him more dangerous,” Wahler said.

Police describe the assailant as a white man with light brown hair in his mid-30s, about 5-foot-9 and 275 pounds. He used ruses at two victims’ front doors to gain access, then beat the women and struggled with them before fleeing, police said.

One of the victims reported seeing a young girl in the car the assailant fled in.

The most recent victim, a 72-year-old Burbank woman, was seriously injured, suffering broken bones, cuts and bruises in what Burbank Police Lt. Don Brown called a “brutal attack” by a “sexual predator” Monday afternoon in her three-bedroom home.

From her hospital bed, the elderly woman told police that her assailant resembled the one in the police drawing that resulted from a July 2 assault.

In that case, a 28-year-old Studio City woman fought off a man who fled after her roommate happened on the attack. Her descriptions led to the police sketch.

Additionally, police recovered fingerprints in her home, Los Angeles Police Det. Karen Crawford said.

In what police consider a related assault, a 36-year-old Burbank woman was attacked in a residential parking garage on June 17 about a block from the elderly woman’s home.

Noting the similarity between the two recent attacks inside victims’ homes, Crawford suggested that women use front-door peepholes to communicate with visitors.

“Don’t open the door,” Crawford said.