It was about 6:45 a.m. George, victim’s husband, just left the house in order to go to work. He stopped and called back to his wife (victim). He had noticed a van parked in the Del Campo Park parking annex at the end off Heathcliff that did not belong to neighbors. It was not a vehicle he had seen before. Because they had been robbed a month prior, the George was concerned.

     After husband left, victim locked doors and windows and went to work in the kitchen. A subjective sense of being watched caused her to look over her shoulder. There was the assailant standing at the entrance wearing a dull green, tight fitting ski mask. It only had a slit for the eyes. He had a gun pointed at her stomach.

   Assailant snarled through clenched teeth. “Don’t scream or I’ll shoot you! I just want your money. I don’t want to hurt you. ” He ordered her past him, into the dining room. “I’m going to tie you up. Do what I say or I’ll kill you.”

     Victim carefully walked past him as he stood aside. “Sit down in that chair,” he ordered through clenched teeth. She sat in a dining room chair. The assailant then took out shoelaces from his wind breaker pocket and stood behind her, pulling her arms behind her. She began to whimper. He stuck the knife to her throat and growled through clenched teeth: “Shut up or I’ll kill you!” He finished tying her wrists very tightly. “Get up!”

     She refused. “No!”

     “I’ve got a gun,” he reminded her. Then he calmed her by saying: “I just want to tie you to your bed.” He pushed her before him and they walked around to the front of the house and down the dimly lit hallway to the master bedroom. She noticed her 7 year old daughter’s bedroom door was closed, though it had been open before. She assumed he had closed it already and not awakened her daughter.

     Assailant stuck the knife at her and ordered her “On the bed!” He started tying her ankles and then she heard cloth being torn.

     “I’m going to cover your face.”

     She shrieked “No!” and told him to get “the fuck out of here!” She struggled.

     “Shut up!” he snapped.

     He sat on her and clutched her mouth with a gloved hand. She struggled and he punched her face with his other hand. As she squirmed and struggled under him, she was able to work her tied hands along her side and reach for his gun which was hanging out of his wind breaker pocket. She tried for the trigger. He punched her head several times. She wailed.

     “Shut up or I’ll kill your daughter!” he threatened. “I’ll cut off her ear and bring it to you.”

     She finally acquiesced. He blindfolded her and stuck a cloth in her mouth.

     Now in control, he slid the knife along her face. He hissed: “If you move, I’ll kill you. I’ll cut up your face.”

     Then it was silent.

     She believed he left the room, quietly padding out. After a while she tried to get free.  She sat up and started working the bindings off her ankles. However, his hands suddenly grabbed her chest and pushed her back. He leaned in close. “If you move, I’ll cut off your toes,” he snarled angrily through his hissing teeth. “One for each time you move.”

     Assailant removed her blue jeans. She now knew what was going to happen. She tried to say something, but he ordered her to “Shut up!” and pointed the knife blade into her bare stomach.

     He began to lubricate himself. Then he orally sodomized her. Afterward, he slowly ran his knife’s sharp blade up and down her legs.

       He raped her.

     Suddenly, he stopped.

     She realized that her young daughter had caused the sudden alarm. She stood in the doorway. He ordered her: “Go into the bathroom! I’m going to tie you up.”

     Rather the daughter screamed that he was going to kill them.

     Assailant then got off the mother and picked up the daughter and threw her on the bed. He retied victim’s ankles.

       There was no sound now but the daughter sobbing.

       The assailant then quietly padded away.

Investigation

Investigation yielded the same general clues as before, and interviews with the victim confirmed the assailant’s language matched that of the EAR. Apparently, he left soon after the child had come in the room. The victim estimated he must not have remained more than 30 minutes in the house.

     One curious piece of evidence was found. The husband and victim smoke Marlboro cigarettes. An ashtray in the kitchen contained such cigarette butts. But there was also a butt from a Vantage cigarette. Victim and husband do not smoke such a brand.

     On February 6, the day before, a young man, mid 20s, was observed by one of the neighbors while she was working in her yard. He gave her the creeps. He was described as short hair, blondish, about 5 foot 10 inches tall, wearing some kind of jogging outfit. Every time she looked at him, he looked away and feigned he was looking at the trees or just the sky.

     The morning of the attack a teacher at Kelley School (elementary) saw a man, mid 20s, run through the park area. The time was 7:30 a.m., the time EAR left off his attack. He was wearing a blue jacket. He was 5 foot 8 to 10 inches tall. Medium build.

Perpetrator Description

Assailant was about 5 foot 9 inches, wearing a dark blue jacket and his mask was deep green with a slit for the eyes (balaclava).

Geography

The house was in Crestview, on Heathcliff, not far where the EAR had struck Victim No 4. The Crestview and surrounding developments are all situated around the massive Del Campo Park. Del Campo High School and Kelly Elementary School abut the park. See pictures below or on the page about the attack on Victim No 4. 

House

The house was a single story, detached middle-class home like in the previous cases. In this case, clues exist that make an examination of the floor plan helpful in the Analysis section below.

Analysis

If the series of clues are correct, it is possible that EAR was already in the house and waiting before the husband left. If not, then it is true that the dining room slider was left unlocked and he slipped in through there quickly. Only in coming through the slider in the dining area could he take her by surprise in the kitchen. However, this does not explain how he had already closed the girl’s bedroom door. The kitchen is in the center of the house, with only one entrance through the dining room in back. It is impossible for EAR to have walked through the living room and family room, to the dining room and then into the kitchen without the victim seeing him first. There is a bar counter overlooking the family room from the kitchen. Working at the sink gives anybody in the kitchen a clear view of the rooms. Lt. Richard Shelby says that the slider was was not locked and EAR burst through.

   Since EAR closed the child’s bedroom door first, he had already prepared what he was going to do before he silently approached victim in the kitchen. This indicates he was already in the house and silently crawled under the view of the victim while she was in the kitchen.

     Whichever way, EAR was undoubtedly waiting nearby, waiting for the husband to leave. This, of course, indicates he had stalked the residence before and knew the husband’s schedule. The house had been robbed the month before and, according to Shelby, the victim had been receiving those hang-up phone calls typical of homes eventually hit by EAR.

     The time and circumstances were near identical to that of EAR’s attack on Victim No. 5.

       There was no time for the assailant to go smoke a cigarette except for the short time that the victim was left alone and worked the bindings loose on her ankles. EAR then had returned quietly and grabbed her again.

     No previous victims had ever indicated a smell of the assailant being a smoker.

     The incident is poorly documented.

     According to Shelby the assailant was dressed as follows:

     Dark blue wind breaker (nylon jacket), cheap black leather gloves, black pants over white boxers, green balaclava, and red, white and blue tennis shoes that would have been more popular with teens than adults.

   Several witnesses saw a young man in the neighborhood in the week preceding the attack. He was described as around 5 foot 10 inches, with relatively short dark blond hair.

   Several witnesses, according to Shelby, saw a similar young man dart into the park that early morning near the time the EAR must have left the victim’s house. One declared that he ran or jogged across Del Campo Park to the high school, another said he went to the clump of pine trees in the park, another said she saw such a young man jump the fence into the Kelly School area near the canal and where the fence parts (where the students to this day still use it to cross into the park, though they are not supposed to). One neighbor felt that a young man who watched her the day before was particularly creepy by the way he stared and then looked away when she looked to him. He stood in the park, near the entrance to Heathcliff.

     According to Shelby, the victim struggled extensively with the assailant in the master bedroom, so much so that EAR must have accidentally cut himself with his own knife. Blood tests proved that the victim’s blood was Type B, but another drop tested to be Type A Positive, which was different than the victim’s. The EAR was so incensed at the victim struggling so much that after he regained control he stabbed the bed mattress repeatedly near the victim’s head.

     From previous bodily fluids taken from the crime scenes and from the rape examination done at the hospital on the victims, it was determined that the EAR had been a non secretor, which meant that he was in only about 20% of the population who did not secrete the identifying substance to prove ABO blood type. With the taking of the blood here, Richard Shelby felt it was certain that the EAR was Type A Positive.

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