Calls flood serial rapist hotline

Friday, June 5, 1998 | 11:51 a.m.

A flood of calls in recent months about the serial rapist terrorizing the valley since 1996 has prompted Secret Witness to have a detective on hand 24 hours a day to answering its hotline.

The new assignment comes at no additional cost to the department. Instead, it requires sexual assault detectives to merely shift their hours of availability so that one person can be handling the hotline calls about the rapist at all times. Tips can be placed by calling the hotline at 385-5555.

Previously, Secret Witness collected the public's anonymous messages on cases with an answering machine. The increasing volume of calls about the rapist still at large -- 120 in the past two months alone -- along with the department's desire to apprehend the man before he strikes again, led Secret Witness to bring on the additional detective.

Having a detective on hand to answer the calls when they come in increases detectives' opportunity to deal with callers directly and avoid the call-back scenario.

Officer Russ White said some callers were under the impression that their anonymity could be in jeopardy by leaving a message on an answering machine. Callers, he said, were afraid that Secret Witness had a means of determining an anonymous caller's identity by a voice recording, or would access Caller ID -- neither of which White said is ever done.

"We want to protect people's anonymity, catch the suspect, and get a monetary reward to the person who helps us catch him," White said. "That's it."

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