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At 1:36 a.m. precisely, victim’s husband awoke and noticed the silhouette of a man standing in the doorway of their bedroom’s sliding glass patio door. By this time the East Area Rapist had been featured on many news reports, and each attack had been reported in the newspapers. The victim’s husband immediately assumed it was The EAR. He closed his eyes and feigned sleeping.
He heard the assailant say: “Wake up, wake up, wake up. I’ve got a gun. Don’t move.” Neither the victim nor the victim’s husband moved. The assailant then started banging on the door frame with the butt of his gun. “Wake up, wake up, wake up.”
Victim awoke. A flashlight beam played off her eyes. It was in the hand of a man standing by the bedroom door. She noticed he was wearing a ski mask and had an automatic pistol in his right hand, the flashlight in his left hand. She pulled the sheets over her face. Assailant said “L-l-l-l-l-look at me.” (According to her he stuttered.) “D-d-d-do you hear me? I have a .45 Magnum. P-p-pull the covers down.”
At this point the victim started shaking her husband and telling him that there was a man in the room. With no other choice victim’s husband started to get up, but the assailant pointed the flashlight beam in his eyes and ordered him to lie down.
“On your stomachs. I’m going to tie you up. Going to take all your money and jewels.” In typical fashion, he then ordered victim to tie the hands of her husband. According to victim, the assailant threw the shoelaces on the back of her husband. He repeatedly told her to tie her husband’s wrists tighter; if she did not, he said he was going to kill everyone in the house. But he said if they didn’t move or yell he wouldn’t hurt anybody. He then ordered her on her stomach and tied her wrists. He then retied husband’s hands and then his feet. He put the muzzle against the husband’s head. He whispered something, but the husband couldn’t understand him. When husband tried to say something, the assailant got very excited. “Shut up! If you say one more thing I’ll . . . She’s dead! She’s dead!”
He then walked back around the bed and tied the victim’s feet.
Assailant went outside the sliding glass door onto the patio and it sounded like he was putting something in a toolbox. He returned and put what looked like a coin box on her husband’s back. Again, in typical fashion, assailant rummaged throughout the room, through drawers and in closet.
He warned them he was going to go help himself to some food and get what else he needed. If he heard anything, he would “kill everything in the house (Victim had 2 sons and her husband’s father from Italy was visiting them) and “I’ll leave into the night.”
About 30 minutes later he returned to stand over victim. He was mad. He growled in a snaky whisper through clenched teeth that he couldn’t find her purse. She told him it was on the refrigerator. He said if she was lying he would kill her. He then insisted that she accompany him to find it, and if they could not find it he would kill her. He pulled her off the bed and warned her husband that he would kill her if he moved. “She’s dead! The first thing you’ll hear is two shots.”
Assailant pushed victim out to the kitchen and she showed him her purse on top. Then he took her into the living room. There she noticed her Afghan draped over the lamp. It created a very subdued light in the room. He ordered her to lie on her stomach. He tied feet again then he blindfolded her.
Assailant returned to the husband and placed a saucer and plate on his back. He warned the husband that if heard them rattle he would kill his wife.
Victim heard him go past to the kitchen again. There he opened up a knife drawer and came back in put a knife against her throat. He said that if she did everything that he told her he wouldn’t hurt her.
Then he returned to the kitchen. He rummaged in the refrigerator and she heard him eating. He came back and put the knife to her throat. He wanted more money. He knew they had more, so she told him that there were coins in her husband’s den. He got angry and once again threatened her that if they weren’t there he would kill her. After a while he returned and she felt him straddle her body and he squatted down on her and placed his penis and her hands. She could tell it had lotion. He ordered her: “Rub me!”
This lasted for a while and then he sat her up and stuck it in her mouth. “Suck it.” He warned her that if she didn’t, he would kill everyone. He repeatedly called her by name. “Oh, ---- that feels good. I like that, ----.”
He untied her feet and raped her.
She did every perversion he demanded, certain that he’d kill her two boys if she didn’t.
After he finished, he returned to the kitchen to eat. He then came back to her and retied her feet very tightly. He them made a point of saying he was going to help himself to some food and beer and go in the backyard and eat for an hour. He then put dishes on her back and said if he heard them rattle he’d come back in and kill “for the first time.” He got very excited, at least he made that appearance. He hissed through his clenched teeth. It was an angry whisper. “Those fuckers, though fuckers, those pigs. I’ve never killed before, but I’m going to now. Listen, do you hear me? I want you to tell those fuckers, those pigs. I’m going to go home to my apartment. I have bunches of televisions. I’m going to listen to the radio and watch television. If I hear about this, I’m going to go out tomorrow night and kill two people. People are going to die.” He stuttered while he spoke.
It was then silent. After about 10 minutes, she thought he was gone.
Assailant had actually gone back to the master bedroom. He had returned to the husband to check on him and rummage the room a number of times. This, the last time, he was very excited. He stuttered when he spoke. He was very angry. “You tell those fucking pigs that I could have killed two people tonight. If I don’t see that all over the papers and television, I’ll kill two people tomorrow night.” He then told him he was going to the kitchen to cook and eat something. He reminded him that if he heard anything from the husband he would kill his wife.
During this time, victim had started moving her wrists and ankles, but the bindings wouldn’t loosen. She suddenly heard him breathing through his mouth. He walked around her, but he wouldn’t say anything. Then, all of a sudden, his face was next to hers. He said: “Those fuckers, those fuckers, those pigs, those pigs, those fuckers. I’m going to kill them, too.” She told him she would tell them tomorrow. “Okay, tell them I’m going to kill those fuckers.”
Then, after a while of silence, she heard her husband call to his father in Italian. His father cut him loose by breaking one of the saucers on his son’s back and then they checked the boys and came and untied the victim.
Investigation
Investigators were greeted by the usual hallmarks of The EAR— cut shoelaces, a broken plate, a ransacked house, drawers open, etc.
The EAR had made his entry through the backyard patio sliding glass door. The bloodhound followed his trail in backyard to the garage, and from there to the victim’s vehicle, and back into the yard and then followed the scent to the side gate and from their along Sandbar Circle. He vectored at Canebrake Court, a small cul de sac less than two blocks away. This is where EAR had parked that night.
Neighborhood canvas turned up that two or three weeks prior a neighbor had heard someone in his backyard. Next morning he discovered the screen of a backyard window been pried off. His dog had been barking frequently. He had also heard unusual noises that night.
Victim and her husband were surprised that their dog, which has its own dog run on the side of the house, did not alert them to the intruder. Their dog was noted for aggressive barking.
Description
According to the husband, the assailant was about 5'8" tall. His ski mask was gray or beige and his gloves were leather. His gun was a .45 caliber automatic. Assailant put on the appearance of being real nervous and sometimes spoke in a stutter. He spoke in a very hissing, angrily whisper through clenched teeth.
Geography
The area of Sandbar Circle fits the pattern of the East Area Rapist. To one side of the community is the bike trail and American River; the other side is closed all along Harrington Street, where there is no access to the community. There’s only one access to Sandbar Circle and that is from McCLaren/American River Drive.
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