Latest attack believed to be work of serial rapist

Cathy Scott

Thursday, Feb. 12, 1998 | 10:33 a.m.

A masked serial rapist has attacked again, marking the sixth attack in 14 months, said Sgt. Clint Robison with the Metro Police sexual assault unit.

The man is suspected of sexually assaulting four women, attempting to rape a teenager and pistol-whipping another woman in the southwest area of the Las Vegas Valley, Metro Police said.

The latest attack occurred before dawn Wednesday. A woman put up such a fight that the would-be rapist fled her apartment in the 2500 block of West Tropicana Avenue before he could rape her, Robison said.

"She violently struggled and screamed," he said. "He was in the preliminary stages. He didn't actually rape her."

But before he fled, he pistol-whipped the woman, cutting and bruising her head and face, Robison said.

On Saturday, a man police believe to be the same suspect broke into an apartment in the 8100 block of West Flamingo Road and was in the beginning stages of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl when someone returned home through the front door and scared him away, Robison said.

The first in the series of six rapes occurred in December 1996. Last year, three more women were raped, Robison said. All but one took place in ground-floor apartments.

Robison said detectives believe the six cases are related "because of his manner of entry, what he's wearing and some other things he's doing inside that are consistent with the others."

The scary thing, Robison said, is that the attacker "is getting a little more brazen."

"Before he only used verbal threats," he said. "He threatened to kill them if they didn't comply. This time, the woman did fight back, and lo and behold, he did come out with a gun and strike her in the face several times."

Because all of the women were either living with female roommates or living alone, investigators "are exploring the possibility that he's doing some type of surveillance," Robison said.

Graveyard patrol officers in the Southwest Area Command are stepping up patrols of the area, he said.

Meantime, the attacker "left some physical items behind in yesterday's attack that we're processing," he said.