The 21-year-old coed was awakened by a feeling of someone in the room. A young man’s voice spoke eerily from the darkness: “All I want is food and money or I’ll kill you.” Then she felt a knife in her neck. She opened her eyes and was staring into a face distorted by a dark nylon stocking.

     “Put your hands behind your back or I’ll blow your brains out.” The intruder’s spoke between clenched teeth in a hissing, angry whisper.

     Victim wasn’t fully awake yet and thought that perhaps her boyfriend was playing a joke on her.

     The intruder wrenched her arms behind her back and tied her wrists. She complained that he was tying her too tightly and that she was being hurt. He then tied her ankles. He then pointed the blunt end of a screwdriver at her left eye. “All I want is food and money,” he growled again. He grabbed her hair and lifted her head off the pillow. Then he pressed a screwdriver firmly against her neck.

     “Don’t move or you’ll never see any of your friends ever again,” he whispered. 

     She was about to scream from the pain, but the assailant shoved her panties in her mouth.

     He started rummaging in her dresser. Fortunately she turned her head and saw his back. He was wearing a dark T-shirt, but he had it on inside-out. She could see the tag illuminated by her closet light. She could see his corduroy pants and a dark nylon stocking pulled down to the nape of his neck. He wore a knit ski cap over it.

     Victim started moving her feet back and forth until the ties came loose. Assailant returned to the bed quickly and pulled the covers off her legs. He pulled her underwear  down over her feet. She started kicking her foot and even hit his thigh. He jumped on her then and started punching her in the side of the face. He grabbed onto her hair with his right hand. She screamed. He hit her four times in the face.

     “Don’t move! Don’t scream or you won’t see any of your friends again. And I mean any of your friends.” Assailant was panting heavily, taking in large breaths.

     Assailant got off the bed and started rummaging again. Victim heard him in the kitchen and then he came back. He jabbed a nail file (or screwdriver) into her face near the left eye. Blood started flowing. He started stroking the file down to her neck. She screamed.

     “I told you to be quiet or I’ll kill you!”

      Assailant got on her back and put his penis in her hand. “Play with my dick.”

     He then got off her and started lubricating himself. He straddled her and sat on her backside again. Victim was crying into her pillow. He ordered her to “Shut up!” and jabbed the nail file against her neck.

     He raped her.

     He then left. 

Investigation

Investigators were hesitant at first to attribute this to the EAR since he had not struck an apartment before and this was also the first time that he had struck in Davis. As a university town its police force is used to voyeurs and peepers. (The only time this present writer was ever shaken down while investigating this cold case was while walking from the apartments in this case with a camera around his neck. This was enough to get a Davis cop to stop me and check my i.d.) However, the words and actions of the assailant reveal it was EAR. This would not only be underscored by subsequent attacks in Davis, but from my own study there is another clue uncovered which links this to EAR and reveals yet another strange part of his MO. See Analysis below.  

     Lt. Larry Crompton (Sudden Terror), through his fictionalized police investigators, has them reflect genuine police ponder whether this victim wasn’t impromptu since EAR did not strike apartments. However, there seems little reason not to think that this victim was intended. As we shall see whenever EAR struck near an apartment he wore not a ski mask but a nylon stocking.

Description

The description is similar in other cases. Subject was in his 20s, 5 foot 9 inches, about 160 lbs. He was wearing a black T-shirt (in this case inside-out). As in an earlier cases he wore the stocking to distort his features and a knit cap on top. Victim did not observe a gun.  But she did notice the screwdriver and the nail file. Small penis, never fully aroused.

Geography

Analysis

It is a curious fact that EAR wore a nylon stocking only when he parked by an apartment complex and struck a house nearby. (See No 20, 24, for example) Perhaps this was because he could conceal such a nylon in his pocket without drawing attention to himself. He is merely a young man then walking with a knit ski cap on his head . . .until.

     Victim did not see a gun. Perhaps despite saying he’d “blow her head off” the EAR did not have one since it could not be concealed with him only wearing a t-shirt.

     There has been much speculation that EAR worked in construction. The fact he was just in Modesto and now on the other side of Sacramento in Davis is used to support that. However, as we shall see in the Modesto cases the evidence suggests that EAR followed the CATs and was not necessarily on a job. Nevertheless, the fact the t-shirt was on backward here in Davis is curious. Does it indicate EAR was working all day in Davis at a job and naturally had to change afterward? He may have changed shirts in the darkness of his car, not knowing he got his dark t-shirt on backwards.

     As time will reveal, EAR did not know Davis either. The apartments are right off the northbound Highway 113, and in turn, right off the main thoroughfare of Russell Blvd. It is a hop, skip and a jump to Highway 113’s on ramp and back south to  Highway 80 and then to Sacramento.

     Russell Blvd, as many Davis streets, is packed with college age bikers, and it would not be a difficult task to prowl nearby neighborhoods on bicycle.

     Although EAR was now starting his back and forth striking in Modesto-Davis, he did not just stalk one day and strike. He had and had to have been stalking both communities for a while in advance.

     EAR clearly had a lot of time on his hands or he had a job that took him all over.

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