To understand the dialog and narrative it is necessary to prefix here that victim lived with her boyfriend. They were both asleep in bed when:

     Victims were awakened by a flashlight beam playing over their faces. A voice now spoke through clenched teeth, in an angry whisper. “Don’t look over this way or I’ll kill you. Roll over on your stomachs. Do you know what a forty-five magnum is? I’ll blow your brains all over the room with it if you don’t do what I tell you.”

     As they complied and rolled over, assailant said: “All I want is your money and nobody will get hurt.” Then he ordered the victim: “Tie up your husband.”

     Assailant directed her eyes to the pair of black shoelaces which had already been placed on the bed while they had been asleep. Victim tied boyfriend and then returned to a prone position on assailant’s orders and then was tied up by the assailant. He then leaned over her and retied her boyfriend tightly. “Don’t move or I’ll kill you.”

     Assailant left room for about 15 minutes.  He then returned and grabbed the victim. “Come with me,” he snarled through clenched teeth. “I can’t find your purse. If you move one inch I’ll cut your throat.”

     Victim and assailant returned in a short time. Assailant then retied boyfriend’s wrists and then tied his ankles with wire cord.

       Assailant took the victim out again, warning the boyfriend: “Don’t move or I’ll kill her.”

       Assailant returned with victim. Assailant placed dishes on boyfriend’s back. “If I hear the dishes, I’ll kill her first.” Then he spoke to victim: “Do what I say or I’ll kill him.”

     Boyfriend was then left alone.

     Victim was taken into the family room. Assailant placed her on the floor and put his penis in her tied hands. He ordered her to “Play with it!” He threatened her by putting the gun to her head and cocking it. He also put a knife to her throat. He threatened her until she called his penis a slang term that he wanted to hear. She did not see his gloves, but she could feel them as he raped her. Also, she felt the gun in his jacket pocket as he raped her.

     Due to the discomfort in his numb fingers, victim’s boyfriend tried to work the bindings loose to relieve some of the pain. The plates fell. Assailant was soon back in the room, but he had returned quietly. He had not rushed in. Boyfriend knew he was there when the barrel of a gun touched his head and he heard it cocked. “You do that again and I’ll kill you,” assailant snarled through his clenched teeth. Assailant then replaced the dishes. 

     In between threats and raping, assailant would go into the kitchen and rummage. He also went and took victim’s license from her purse and took portrait pictures out and set them about.

     Close to 20 minutes passed and the boyfriend accidentally knocked the plates off his back again. Assailant was quickly back by his side. He threw the sheets over his head and warned him angrily: “Don’t move or I’ll kill her.”

     Soon the house was silent. After a while, victim called to her boyfriend. She was able to hobble back and with a knife cut his bindings. They called the sheriffs from the neighbors.

Investigation

Sheriffs discovered the master bedroom phone and the kitchen  phone lines had been cut. Entrance to the house had apparently been made through a sliding glass back patio door.

     Victim admitted frankly that they kept a half gram of coke in the refrigerator. They also had a pill bottle with two beans in it and a little marijuana. The items in question were missing.

     Victim also recalled that while washing her car that day, wearing shorts and a bikini top, her attention had been drawn to a passing car, a sedan, because the driver slowed to look at her. She thought nothing of it until after the incident.

Description

Victim never saw assailant’s head clearly, but believed he had a mask. However, victim did see a green khaki colored nylon jacket, dark green pants whose hems were tucked into army lace-up boots. She did not see the gloves, but knew he wore them.

Geography

Analysis

This is a particularly significant attack. There is more information at hand here than with the last rape, which was the first time that EAR struck a couple. As in that case, The EAR referred to the boyfriend as “husband” indicating he had not stalked the house significantly before to identify its occupants.

     The area of Schuyler Drive offers a change in The EAR’s developed routine MO. This area is near Madison Ave. Though it is not near the huge Del Campo Park, this part of Cherrelyn where he struck is the opposite side of McKinney, which is by a school’s park, and merges with Rutland. So it is essentially sandwiched between Madison and Rutland.

     This calls for interpretation. It could underscore the probability that the young man driving the car that slowed and observed the victim washing her car in the driveway was EAR. The victim was apparently enticing enough in a particular type of beauty that EAR broke his stalking pattern to access her. He could have stalked the street for a while, as it is opposite a school field, and this fit his prowling MO. But she had not been receiving hang-up calls, and there is no evidence that she had been singled out before.

     One other clue may suggest he was attracted to her merely by coming and going along McKinney. Richard Shelby (Hunting a Psychopath) recalls that the house opposite the victim’s house was empty. He checked it and found evidence that EAR had used it and watched the victim’s house opposite. The question is, when? Had he been targeting her for days or longer, or do the clues in the house opposite come from EAR having roosted there that night in anticipation of the attack? This would mean he could quickly learn what houses were empty and therefore those that could be used as viable bases.

   This part of his MO would repeat and repeat. Either he had ways of determining which house would be empty in advance or he learned just by prowling. Thus the question is rather crucial here: had he been stalking her for a while or did he reference something just that day that told him she was vulnerable? 

   . . .Or was he cruising because he knew that house was empty and he was coming now to check out the neighbors? It was manna from heaven his first cruise.

     Supporting the impromptu nature of the attack is the fact he had not fully determined who was in the house yet. The EAR brought bindings for one person, the intended victim. He had to use wire cord to tie the boyfriend’s ankles. His unpreparedness is seen in how he has to take the victim with him each time he leaves the room until he finally has the boyfriend trussed properly.

     What is of particular interest here is that EAR was clearly passing through the Crestview area again when he saw her in her driveway. It is chilling to consider that he had just then been stalking closer to Del Campo Park in an attempt to find another victim and then suddenly this opportunity offered itself.

     I do not have the directions in which the stalking car was headed. If he was headed to the park he came from Madison Avenue. If he was leaving, then he was going to Rutland and . . . presumably Madison Avenue. This can give us an idea perhaps where he lived.

     The EAR reverted to his previous ensemble: the “military lace-up boots.” He had used this type on his earlier strikes (they actually could have been biker’s boots) but by this time he had abandoned them in favor of tennis shoes. Were they work shoes?

     This is the second time he made a mistake about a boyfriend being the “husband.” He also wasn’t stalking his victims as much. Victim 15 would be a last noteworthy example of one he had stalked for a long time (up to 6 months). He was, frankly, becoming bolder and taking advantage during his prowling. His attacks would now become more frequent, for no longer refraining from attacking with a male present he was not restricted to coming back on a specific night in which the female was alone. This would increase his striking tempo. As May would soon prove, his repeated attacks would push Sacramento into a panic.

Night Predator
Files on the East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker