Police Ask if New Attack Is Linked to Serial Rapist

Authorities are investigating whether the kidnap and sexual assault of a 20-year-old woman last weekend are connected to a serial rapist who has attacked up to eight local women in the last three years, according to police.

Although police have not yet established a direct link between the serial rapist and the latest incident, investigators have not ruled out that possibility, Lt. Neal Rein said.

“It seems like everybody is connecting them because this type of incident is rare in this city and all the attacks are on young females in the later hours of the evening,” Rein said.

The incident Sunday occurred after the woman drove to her residence in the west end of Simi Valley at 1 a.m. and parked her vehicle in the driveway, according to police. As she was about to get out of her car, the suspect suddenly appeared, forced the woman into the passenger seat and drove to an unidentified location where he sexually assaulted her.

The victim was unable to identify the perpetrator or the location of the crime, police said. There was no indication that the woman knew the attacker.

Although declining to comment on whether the attacker had brandished a weapon, authorities noted the victim had not been beaten.

After the sexual assault, the attacker drove the victim to a location near her home about 2:45 a.m., got out of the car and fled on foot. The victim then drove home and called police.

Authorities investigating a possible link between the serial rapist and Sunday’s attack said they were still analyzing physical evidence gathered from the latest incident.

Of the five sexual assaults and three rapes that occurred between June of 1996 and May of this year, genetic material from at least three of the incidents matched, according to Sgt. Andrew McCluskey. The genetic match was made from semen, blood or saliva, McCluskey said.

Authorities believe that the perpetrator stalks his victims before he attacks. All of the other victims have been between 15 and 23 years old, thin and with light brown hair. No physical details about the latest victim were released.

Police have been hampered in their search to find the attacker because none of the previous victims was able to provide a detailed description of the assailant. Most of the victims had been awakened late at night by a man with a knife. The most that victims have been able to report is that the attacker was young--probably in his early 20s--and white or possibly Latino.

According to police reports, the attacker in the most recent incident was described only as in his 20s, 6 feet tall and 180 pounds.

Authorities had been investigating a possible link with a serial rapist who struck at least five times in the western San Fernando Valley since March 29.

Rein said that connection was no longer considered a possibility. “Based on the opinions of the investigators on both sides, we have ruled out the link between the incidents in the San Fernando Valley and the cases we have here,” he said.