Victim awoke for no real reason. She instinctively looked to the bedroom door and there she saw a masked man holding a flashlight. The cold steel of the gun in his right hand sparkled from the edges of the beam of light. She poked her husband to wake up. Just as he started to stir, the masked man spoke:

     “Neither one of you motherfuckers move or I’ll blow your fucking heads off.” He spoke through clenched teeth in a threatening, angry whisper. “All I want is your money.” Intruder approached the husband’s side. He put the muzzle of the gun to his temple and cocked it. “One move I’ll kill every motherfucker in the house.” Instinctively the husband began to swing his feet off the bed. The masked intruder slapped his ankles. “Don’t move again or I’ll blow your fucking head off. Get on your stomach and put your face in the pillow. Put your hands behind your back.” Intruder threw shoelaces at the victim. “Tie his hands,” he ordered.

   As in other cases, the victim fumbled when tying her husband’s hands. The assailant snarled through clenched teeth: “Tighter, tighter.” Then he ordered her on her stomach. He tied her hands and then he retied husband’s. He tied their ankles. Victim’s ankles were tied loosely; husband’s tied tightly.

     The assailant then demanded where their money was. “All I want is the money, and I can get back to the city or I can kill every motherfucker here and leave.”

     Victim told him it was in her purse on the bar. Husband said his wallet was in his pants pocket.

     Although the husband spoke normally, the assailant respondent “Shut up! and quit screaming.”

     Assailant got excited when he could not find the wallet in the husband’s pants pocket. “It’s not here. Your wallet’s not here! Don’t lie to me. Where’s your billfold?”

   “In my pants in the den,” responded the husband.

     As the assailant left the bedroom, he said: “Don’t move or I’ll kill you.” 

     Assailant was soon back, terrorizing them as soon as he entered. “You moved, didn’t you? You tried to untie him, didn’t you?”

   Assailant rechecked the husband’s wrists and then pulled the victim off the bed and untied her ankles. He gagged husband with a yellow hand towel. He then gagged and blindfolded the victim and pushed her to the bedroom doorway. “Where is your purse? I can’t find it.” She was, of course, incapable of responding. He pushed her down the hallway and told her to “Shut up!” when she tried to mumble a response. He then put her on the floor in the den. He retied her ankles.

     Assailant then returned to the bedroom and rechecked the husband’s wrists. Then he put the bed sheets over his head. He put several perfume bottles in a line on his back. He moved close to his face and gave him the standard threat. “I hear the bottles jiggle, I’ll blow your fucking head off.” He cocked the gun and pushed the muzzle against the husband’s head. “You don’t like it, do you? There’s nothing you can do about it.”

   Assailant then rummaged through the house, closing and opening cabinet drawers and cupboards. At one point he walked up to the victim and stood over her. “I'm hungry. I need something to eat.” He then went to the refrigerator. She heard him open a can of beer. She knew it was beer because it was the only canned drink in the house. Then he returned and stood over her. She fearfully waited.

     “I want to fuck you, ---- [name].

     The subject was surprised to hear him speak her name. Suddenly she felt his penis in her hand. He ordered her “Play with it! Stroke it!” Then after a pause: “I want you to suck me, --- [name]. He made her do everything he wanted. He pawed over her and then rolled her on her back and untied her ankles.

     He raped her.

   He left and rummaged through the house again. He quietly returned close to her.  He touched her shoulder with something she could not identify. “I have to take these out to the van. Don’t move or I’ll blow your head off.  I’ll be back.”

     That was it.

Investigation

Investigators arrived to see a largely undisturbed crime scene. The husband was standing out front with his hands still bound behind him. When they entered the house his wife was on the den floor on her stomach, gagged, blindfolded and naked.

   A bloodhound followed the assailant’s scent to Delta Way.

     Tests to find the perpetrator’s fingerprints on the victim’s skin returned negative results.

   Tennis shoe impressions were found in several neighboring yards. Casts were made. These matched an Adidas Tobacco model. This was a casual non sports shoe. The impressions were measured and indicated a size 9.5. The particular shoe model had been made for 8 years. About 1 1/2 million pairs have been sold in the 13 Western states.

     Canvas of the neighborhood uncovered that a neighbor had been heading to work at 5 a.m.  When he turned onto Camino Ramon from El Capitan he saw a van, 3 to 5 years old. It was pulled close to the trees. The van was dark blue-green, possibly a Chevrolet. Double rear door, small windows, single rectangular taillights. (Sounds more like a Dodge Tradesman).

   The time of the attack was between 4 a.m. and 4:45 a.m.

     Investigators uncovered that The EAR had gained entrance through the sleeping child’s open bedroom window. He had entered so quietly he had not awakened the boy at all. A piece of mud from his shoe was found on the carpet.

     Canvas of the neighborhood also revealed that a young man whose house fronted El Capitan saw a person of interest wearing a dark T-shirt. It was around 11:45 p.m. He was standing just 5 feet away and looking at his neighbor’s house. The man then moved toward the front of the side yard and scrambled over the fence. Witness waited several minutes. He then went outside. He walked east on El Capitan. As he approached Allegheny Drive he saw the person of interest get on a ten-speed bicycle. When the POI saw him he fled quickly, turning on El Capitan and then south on Mustang Drive.

   Police had responded to the call at 15 minutes past midnight, but they were unable to locate the POI and the bicycle.

   At 2:30 a.m. on Allegheny Drive another couple heard noise outside their bedroom window. The husband checked out the window. He could see nothing. He is neighbor to the victim. In the morning he discovered that their side gate had been left open.

Description

In general the description matches the other descriptions of the East Area Rapist. On this occasion The EAR’s gun was a revolver (probably a .357 magnum.)

Geography

This area of Allegheny Drive is close to the Iron Horse Trail and not far at all from the Liberta Court victim. It has both a park nearby, a main thoroughfare to the highway, and the trail (then an abandoned railroad track.)

House

The house was a single story, detached middle class home.

Analysis

Thanks to the young witness we again have a glimpse at EAR’s pre strike prowling. Hours before the attack he was biking about the general area and going through yards. The location on Delta Place to which the bloodhound had traced the scent tells us that this is where EAR had parked. When the young witness saw the biker take off and turn down Mustang he was in fact seeing EAR flee to where he had parked. He need only ride through the park to Delta Place to escape if he wanted. He waited his time or drove off and returned later to commit the crime.

     Since no bike had been stolen this night, it seems EAR had brought his own. This might indicate that he did indeed have a van with him. According to the witness description that van he saw had rectangular taillights. This makes it sound like a Dodge Tradesman and not a Chevrolet. If the rectangular lights were vertical, it would make it a Ford Econoline. Was it EAR? Did he have a modified tradesman’s van?

     Camino Ramon is the main thoroughfare out of the area. It makes sense— in fact undeniable— he would turn here and get back to Highway 680. But if that was EAR, why did he pulled to the side and stop?

     This entire incident reconfirms for us that EAR spent much time prowling about several yards; that he parked on the other side of parks in different neighborhoods and used the walking paths. But it confirms for us something else. He brought a bike via a vehicle. We must take this into consideration even for unusual attacks as in the case of No 26.

     How much time did EAR devote to stalking out these victims along the Contra Costa corridor? Obviously a lot. The attacks represent only a portion of the time he spent surveying a community off the Iron Horse or some other trail and canal or CAT corridor.

     There is yet another case in Danville that brings this home. It occurred about a month before this rape.

     Nearby to the area, just south, Iron Horse Trail runs between a school on one side and a housing development on the other. On May 16, a housewife was doing her laundry in the garage of her Joaquin Drive home. She came inside and there walking across her living room was a young man. He was a white man, about 25 years old. He was wearing a jogging suit and on his head he was wearing a black knit watch cap. The man immediately left outside the back sliding patio door, out the side gate, and then went north on Joaquin Drive in the direction of Camino Ramon.

     From the description and behavior this seemed to be EAR. Early in the La Riviera attacks EAR was just as bold, walking up to side gates and entering, bolting with great agility, as this man did here, when seen.

     There seems no reason to doubt this was EAR. He jogged the neighborhood, appearing innocent, and then intruded on homes. It seems a rather strange dichotomy— an incredibly calculating villain at night and during the day sometimes a very clumsy intruder.

     More than the description and behavior of this man there is the neighborhood as a witness. This was the one place with a little connecting lane to the trail. I suggest to you that EAR was not going to Camino Ramon, but turned right on Larkwood Circle and then right again onto Marques Court to return across the tracks to the school. He had probably parked on the other side near the school so his car would not stand out.

     The prowling here had not gotten to the point of what happened in east Walnut Creek by the municipal golf course or the intrusion point as in the case of Thunderbird Place in San Ramon. But it was clearly EAR and it gives us some more insight into the many faces of his prowling before he settled on a victim.

     This entire crime spree was nothing but one huge hobby for this guy.

     Apparently the neighborhood offered nothing that he wanted. He returned close to where he had struck before, to this Allegheny house and decided on it in June. He followed the Iron Horse Trail back north again.  

       Unfathomable arrogance. Unrelenting predator.

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