Police continue search for man preying on young girls

Keith Paul

Wednesday, Dec. 29, 1999 | 10:51 a.m.

No new abductions or attempted kidnappings of girls have been linked in the past two weeks to a man who was reported preying on at least six girls in southwest Las Vegas, but Metro Police patrols remain increased in the area.

Metro sexual assault detectives believe five attempted abductions and one abduction -- including three attempts on Dec. 15 -- were committed by the same man.

"We're maintaining our vigilance over there," Metro Lt. Tom Lozich of the Southwest Area Command said. "We've instructed officers who are not answering calls to try and be in that area."

So in addition to cruising the area more often, officers who need to pull over to write reports will park in the area of the assaults that occurred in the 5700 block of West Tropicana Avenue, 3500 and 3700 blocks of South Arville Street, 7400 block of West Russell Road, 5700 block of Reno Avenue and 4900 block of Duneville Street.

A man tried to abduct three 13-year-old girls in three separate incidents on Dec. 15 starting with one about 4:30 p.m. in the 5200 block of Tropicana Avenue and two more in two hours. All three girls were able to run away from the man.

After those three incidents, detectives checked past abduction and attempted abduction reports and found three other incidents in the area linked to the same man, sexual assault unit Sgt. Chris Carroll said.

The three other incidents linked to the man involved 11- and 12-year-old girls. Two were able to escape, but one was approached by the man at an apartment complex, taken to another location in the complex and sexually assaulted, police said.

In most of the incidents, a man approached a girl, showed a gun and told her she had to come with him.

Since the attempted abductions on Dec. 15, detectives have gone through a file of more than 400 registered sex offenders who have been cataloged by the state Parole and Probation Department. A few matched the description of the man, but none turned out to be the suspect, Carroll said.

While there is a searchable database of 400 registered sex offenders in Clark County, there are another 3,100 sex offenders who are registered as felons, but who are not in the database. They will be added after the Parole and Probation Department interviews and catalogs them, sexual assault unit Lt. Tom Monahan said.

Detectives now believe an attempted abduction of a 9-year-old in the area of Rainbow Boulevard and Spring Valley Parkway the day after the three attempts on the 13-year-olds is not connected to the other incidents, Monahan said.

Monahan said just because there have been no new incidents doesn't mean police assume the suspect has left the area or will never try again.

"It could be 100 different things. He could be in jail on unrelated charges. He could have changed his technique. He could have left town," he said. "Until we're certain he's in jail and convicted, there is still a threat out there."

Anyone with information in this case is asked to call Metro Police at 229-3421 or Secret Witness 385-5555.