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Serial Rapist Preys On Hayward Homeless Women

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Sep 18, 2008 9:41 pm US/Pacific

Serial Rapist Preys On Hayward Homeless Women

CBS 5 CrimeWatch

HAYWARD (BCN) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: CBS

Hayward police Sgt. Steve Brown said Thursday that investigators are "pulling out all the stops" to try to catch a suspected serial rapist who apparently has been preying on homeless women since February but are frustrated that they haven't been able to crack the case.

Brown said, "We're doing all we can" but police are hoping that the victims give them better descriptions so they can hunt down the suspect.

He said some victims have been "very cooperative" in providing information to police but other victims have been less cooperative.

Brown said that's understandable to some extent because the victims have been traumatized and some homeless people aren't comfortable dealing with the police.

Brown said one problem is that the descriptions of the suspect are only "generic" so police are having a hard time focusing on one particular person.

He said the victims describe their assailant as being black, between 5 feet 8 inches and 6 feet 2 inches, in his 20s or 30s, and 160 to 200 pounds.

Brown said there hadn't been any sexual assaults of homeless women for at least a month but a homeless woman told the Hayward City Council at its meeting Tuesday night that she was assaulted in a parking lot near Centennial Hall early Saturday morning.

The woman, who said she wanted to alert the community, said the man who attacked her had help from an accomplice and the two men drove off in a car when she fought back after her attacker threatened to kill her.

Brown said it's hard to tell if the attack is related to the previous sexual assaults because the previous attacks only involved one suspect who didn't use a car.

"We don't necessarily see a link at this time, but there very well could be one," he said.

Brown said it's possible that the rapist could be a homeless man but admitted that's hard to tell as well.

He said police are hoping that DNA tests will help lead them to the culprit.