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Victim, asleep in bed, was awakened by a figure straddling her and pressing her face into the pillow. A man spoke through clenched teeth in a hideous whisper. “Don’t scream. Don’t make any noise. I won’t hurt you.” Something sharp pointed into her back. “All I want is money and food for my van. Put your hands behind your back. You make a sound, I’ll kill you.” Assailant tied her wrists and removed the covers off her feet. He tied her ankles loosely together. “Where’s the money? Where’s the money?”
Although victim did not bother to lift her head, she now turned in the direction from which he spoke. She saw assailant was wearing a ski mask that covered his hair and collar and that he was wearing a dark blue wind breaker.
She told him that her purse was on the kitchen sink.
Assailant lubricated himself by her. She describes the smell of Johnson & Johnson’s baby lotion odor, which she had in the bathroom. He untied her ankles, pulled up her t-shirt and pulled off her underpants.
“Do you like to fuck, ----- [her name.]”
She said no.
“Do you like to raise dicks?”
She said no.
Assailant replied “Then why do you raise mine every time I see you?”
He raped her.
Then he searched the house.
He then returned and raped her again.
Victim believed that he got her name from her driver’s license in her purse. She didn’t believe this was anybody she knew.
Investigation
Investigation revealed tennis shoe prints only outside of the patio door leading to the kitchen area. Lt. Larry Crompton was one of the investigators in this case. He recalls that when he entered the house he noticed how cold it was. (It was 32 degrees outside.) The coldness inside a house was unusual for this time of year. The thermostat had been turned off. The house did not appear to be ransacked, though there was a lack of furniture as the homeowner was preparing to move. Sealed and unsealed moving boxes had not been ransacked.
The phone in the master bedroom had its cord cut. The phone was on the floor near the bed. The strips of towel had the ends knotted together. They were on the edge of the bed. At the foot of the bed was a comforter, a woman’s coat and a pair of white panties, stained with blood. Near these were white shoelaces, all knotted and (now cut). The bowl-type lamp on the bedside stand was still on. Victim had already been removed from the house and was en route to the John Muir Hospital.
The bloodhound, a dog named Pita, traced the scent of the EAR to the backyard fence. The handler went and took the dog around to the other side and followed it along the railroad tracks (now Iron Horse Trail) and down the dirt path to Hansen Lane (Rhett Place today). The bloodhound had diverted a few times, indicating EAR had been in a number of backyards that night. The investigators could only deduced that EAR’s car had been parked at the blind spot in the road just short of Orange Blossom Way.
Another bloodhound followed the exact same air scent and vectored about a block off from the first dog. This was due to wind velocity which had moved the scent.
Both dogs reacted the same, and far more intensely in the bathroom of the home. They did not react as though it was a normal human sent. Prior to this the other bloodhounds had behaved in the same fashion. This behavior told the handlers that the EAR either was a heavy duty drug abuser or had some disease which affected his biochemistry.
Victim walked the investigators through the scene later. However, after that she never reentered the residence. Friends came to pack her remaining things.
Victim admitted to investigators that it got very cold during the time he was there. Investigators noted that the heat had been turned off. She had had her stereo playing softly and EAR must also have turned that off. EAR also closed all the drapes. Victim knew he had a flashlight, but she didn’t see it. After she looked over to see his back and ski mask she never opened her eyes. She had not heard him walking around so he must have worn soft sole shoes.
It was discovered that her driver’s license was missing from her purse. Two rings were gone. An antique stick pin, pendents from a jewelry box. One of the rings was found by the stereo which had been unplugged by the EAR.
In this case, Lt. Crompton was able to pick up a fingerprint on the globe lamp that was on the bedside table. This was a special type of lamp that one had to hold in order to turn it on. EAR had turned it on. Due to the fact that victim heard EAR lotioning himself, the deduction was made that EAR was not wearing gloves. Fingerprints were uncovered that Crompton felt were fresh. This was the only time a fingerprint was ever picked up
The fingerprint would be checked against all those whom she had known that might have come in contact with the lamp.
Canvas of the neighborhood revealed that one of the dinner guests of the victim’s neighbor had seen a dark colored van parked in the victim’s driveway around 11:30 p.m. Victim knew no one who owned such a vehicle.
Description
Assailant wore herringbone tennis shoes, a blue wind breaker, dark ski mask. He was medium build.
Geography
The location was particularly typical of The EAR’s tactical use of open areas, a field, and a blind spot. In this case the open area was the long corridor behind the homes on Liberta that was at this time the abandoned Southern Pacific tracks. This was later converted into the Iron Horse Trail. It also fit the Highway 680 corridor attacks in that the development was not far from a main road and the 680 freeway.
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