Criminology - The East Area Rapist Vanishes

Episode Date: April 28, 2018

The arrest of a suspect, in this case, has grabbed the world's attention like nothing we've seen recently in the world of true crime. And like all of you, we'll be glued to the events as they unfold. But, we still have a ways to go in our coverage of the crimes. In episode 10, we see the EAR attack back in the area of Rancho Cordova. We discuss the only attack in the series that took place in Fremont, which is in Alameda County. Then the EAR returns to Contra Costa County, but this time it is in the town of Walnut Creek. We finish up the attacks committed by the East Area Rapist in Northern California. We're preparing to dive into his move into Southern California and the radical change in the crimes that he commits there.   You can support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. I'd like to welcome everyone to episode 10, season two of criminology. Morif, we only have three episodes to go. We're nearing the finish line. Still got a lot of information to put out, though. Yeah, so these are the last three episodes, but they're going to be packed with a lot of information. and we're going to reveal a lot of important stuff that happens with this case

and some big changes that come along too. So it's pretty exciting to see where it's going to go towards the end of the season. More if we had some new Patreon supporters. So let's give our shoutouts. We had Janine Mulvaney, Oscar Sanchez, Sammy Samuelson, Heidi Haltson, and Melissa Lovell. So big thanks to all of our new supporters. as well as the people that continue to support us month after month, it really helps us to defray the costs of putting out the podcast.

We can't thank you enough. We've been really amazed at just how much people have supported us, and it sort of blows us away to know that people care about the show and want to help it succeed. So your support through Patreon or even on social media is really appreciated. We've got a lot of emails that have come in from people asking about the book, Criminology True Crime Podcast Presents the case of the Zodiac Killer. Of course, that's based on season one of the podcast.

And that's available through Amazon or by going for a partner in this project, Wild Blue Press. As we've mentioned, Wild Blue Press has some really great true crime books. If you'd like to find out more about the book, simply go to wildblupress.com forward slash zodiac prewaters. and as a special offer to the listeners of criminology, Wild Blue Press is offering our listeners a free audio book download. Go to wildbluepress.com slash audio-dash books to get your free download. And by the time this episode comes out, we'll be about a week away from CrimeCon.

It's not too late to make a last-minute decision to head to Nashville. And if you're going to do that, make sure you go to crimecon.com, use our promo code criminology, and you'll get 10% off your standard badge. So let's quickly recap where we left off in episode nine. We talked with Michelle, the 40th victim of the East Area Rapest who was attacked in San Ramon in Contra Costa County in 1978. And we've had a ton of feedback about Michelle's interview. And it's all been amazingly positive. And if you listen to the interview, you heard Michelle start to tell the story of what happened to her that night. But eventually she realized that it was just too tough. She wasn't ready.

And remember, this was the first time that she had come out publicly. to talk about her attack. And, you know, Morph, we just can't thank her enough for the bravery that she showed in even being able to get out what she was able to get out. That takes a lot of guts

and people really responded to it. Now, the rape kit from Michelle's crime scene would be the first to yield important DNA in this case, years later. We also talked about two East Area rapist attacks that occurred in San Jose that seemed like outliers. Finally, we got into the written materials that have been dubbed the homework that were likely dropped by the East Area Rapist as he left the scene of an attack in Danville, California. And that attack occurred on December 9th, 1978. Now, segueing into this episode

10. We mentioned at the end of episode 9 that the East Area Rapist wouldn't attack again until March of 1979. And that's where we're going to pick up. And when he does attack again, it's going to be on his old turf. Rancho Cordova had not suffered a confirmed East Area Rapist attack in two years. And it had been over a year since the murders of the majoris in February of 1978. Residents were likely relieved that the East Area Rapest was gone, but on March 20th, 1979, he returned. And this time it would be in an area of Rancho that he had not struck before, the 2,300 block of Fillmore Lane. Philmore Lane consisted of several homes, which were three years old or so. While it was not an area with confirmed East

East Area rapist attacks, there had been various prowlers and burglaries reported in the area since the East Area Rapids Crime started in 1976. And this area was less than a mile from the botched 1977, Stakea at the 7-11. Around 2.15 a.m., a. A.m., a 38-year-old woman awoke to find a man on top of her. He was holding down her arms. She immediately started to struggle with the intruder, and he punched her in the face four or five times with his right hand.

In his left hand, he was holding an object that he pressed against the woman. The man who was wearing a nylon stocking over his face, spoke to the woman through clenched teeth warning her. All I want is your fucking money. I won't hurt you if you shut up. The intruder then turned the woman over so that she was lying face down. He gagged her with a white scarf and then tied her hands behind her back using white cord. He threw a comfort over her head and then told her not to look up.

She heard the bedroom light flip on and then she heard the man moving the jewelry on her dresser. It sounded to her as if he was scraping it across. the dresser and then into a paper bag. Afterwards, the man left the room and started ransacking the rest of the house. She suddenly became frightened that the sound of the man going through her stuff would wake up her two children that were sleeping elsewhere in the house. The man returned a few times to the woman's side and checked on her bindings. During these visits, he whispered in her ear, where's the fucking money?

She told him that she had money in her purse that was in the kitchen. but the assailant lost interest in her money at that point and began to pull her pajama bottoms off of her, getting them down past her buttocks. Suddenly, the alarm clock in her daughter's bedroom went off. The girl had set the alarm for 6 a.m. The attacker called the bound woman a bitch before throwing the covers over her and bolting from the house. The woman waited for 10 minutes to make sure that the man was gone. She was able to easily get the cord off her wrist as it had been, according to her, more wrapped than tied. She called police at 6.10 a.m. and they arrived at her house within minutes.

The woman described their attacker as being about six foot tall and perhaps 180 pounds. She was able to gather that the man had made off with a bunch of her jewelry, which included a jewel box brand woman's watch valued at 700 hours, a sterling charm bracelet, and several other pieces of jewelry. The attacker had also gotten away with her purse, credit cards, driver's license, and house keys. She estimated the value of the hall to be around $3,000. As police looked around the home, they couldn't find any obvious point of entry. There were no pride windows or doors, no damage locks.

The woman told the police that she had only been living there for about four months after moving from Petaluma, California. The previous owners of the home had been an older couple, and to her knowledge, they had never had any trouble before. Police also talked to the victim's son and daughter who had been unharmed, and they learned that about five hours before the attack, around 12.30 a.m., the woman's son had been awakened by the sound of someone moving around outside of the house, but he didn't think too much of it, and he had gone back to sleep. Police also questioned neighbors of the victim. Most of them had not seen anything unusual, but a few reported hearing a dog barking at around 5 a.m., which was unusual for the area. Another neighbor reported that his CB radio had been stolen a week earlier,

but overall, things were pretty normal leading up to the attack and immediately afterwards. Now, this attack is listed as a confirmed these area rapist attack, but it's a bit different too. The attacker never did mention needing food or money for his van, and he barely tied the victim at all. His mask appeared to be a stocking mask and not the ski mask typically worn by the East Area Rapist. If this was the work of the East Area Rapist,

it definitely showed that he still had ties to the Rancho Cordova area, even though this was an area east of his known attacks. As Morph said, this is considered an official East Area Rapest attack, but there are some individuals that have their doubt. Either way, people in the area once again had their guard up. So they were on edge in the Rancho Cordova area, but the people in the city of Fremont located in Alameda County, which is about 100 miles southwest of Rancho Cordova, were not.

Just south of Contra Costa County, Alameda County is home of the prestigious UC Berkeley University. and had a population of about one million residents in 1979. On April 3rd, a 27-year-old woman and her boyfriend, also 27, returned to their home on Honda Way after night out. They had driven to San Jose to check on some rental properties that one of the pair owned. While in San Jose, they had dinner and then drove home. It was around 9.10 p.m. when they arrived home. When they walked into the house, they noticed that one of the spare bedroom,

doors was closed, which was noticeable as they normally kept it open. Unfortunately, they dismissed it. They went into their bedroom where they were intimate with each other, and then they went to bed at around 10.30 p.m. It was after midnight, around 12.20 a.m. We're into April 4th now. The couple woke up to find a masked man holding a flashlight. Their eyes were blinded from the flashlight beam.

Once their eyes adjusted to the light, they could see that the man was holding what appeared to be a semi-automatic handgun. The couple heard a quiet, raspy voice from behind the flashlight say, Don't move or I'll shoot your fucking head off. The intruder ordered the pair to turn over and lie face down. He threw shoelaces to the 27-year-old woman, ordering her to tie her boyfriend's hands behind his back. As she finished tying up her boyfriend's hands, she looked up towards the light and the dark figure hissed, don't look at me. He once again told him not to make any moves or he would shoot their fucking heads off. On top of that, he mentioned to the couple that he would cut their heads off.

Once the male victim was secured, the attacker turned his attention towards the female victim and tied her hands behind her back as well as her angeles. ankles. Once she was secured, the assailant tied the male victim's ankles as well. The masked man then asked the female victim where her purse was, and she told him that it was in her car parked in the garage. The man then left the room and went to the garage to find her purse. He soon returned and told the helpless couple that he wanted to separate them. He then ordered the female victim to come with him, helping her to stand up. He walked her out of the room and down the hall. She noticed little details about the man. He was white. She could see brown hair on his legs. The man's shoes were white tennis shoes and he had checkered socks on. When they got to the front room, the man laid the victim down

gently on the floor. He adjusted her ankle bindings and then covered her head with a blanket for blindfolding her. The man made his way into the kitchen where he grabbed some dishes and then walk back to the bedroom where the male victim was tied. The dishes clanged as the man carried them down the hallway. He stacked the dishes on the male victim's back and warned him not to move. The attacker made his way back to the female victim and stood over her. He whispered something into the woman's ear, but she couldn't hear what he was saying. When she told him that she couldn't hear him, the man became angry and hissed at her to whisper. He once again whispered into her ear and told her, if you do what I want, I'll take food and money and leave without hurting anyone.

The woman knew at that moment that the masked man was going to sexually assault her. He walked over and turned on the television set and turned the volume down. He placed his penis in the woman's bound hands and told her to stroke it. After a few moments, he stopped her and untied her ankles and then raped the helpless woman. After the sexual assault was over, he retied the victim. victim's ankles together and tied her to a bookcase before turning off the television set. He then walked out of the room and she could hear him moving through the house. It sounded as if he was digging through change or moving keys around.

After a short time, the house was silent. She thought the rapist was gone but waited for five minutes before making a move. She was able to make her way into the kitchen where she used a knife to cut her bindings off before freeing her boyfriend who was still tied into the bedroom. they immediately called police. Police received the call just after 1.30 a.m. and they were on scene by 145. The couple detailed the events of the attack

and replayed for police what the rapist had said and done. They remembered that he mentioned wanting food and money for his van. The couple felt that the voice he used was put on and not his everyday voice. They described the man and as sounding as if he was in his 20s with a medium build about 5 foot 11 to 6 foot tall and weighing in the range of 170 to 180 pounds. It was then that the couple realized the significance of the closed bedroom door and they told

police about it. When police checked out the room, they found that the bedroom window was broken around the latch area. As police searched the home, they also found that the diner, room window was open and there were muddy footprints underneath. The window screen was found outside about five feet from the house. After checking the perimeter of the house, police discovered that multiple windows and two sliding glass doors had fresh prime marks on them, indicating that the rapist had tried to

enter the home via multiple entry points. The couple told police that in the previous two months, on two separate occasions, they had witnessed a prowler in their yard. And both times they had called police, but nothing came from it. Police questioned the victim's neighbors to see if they had seen anything unusual, and one of them had, or at least had heard something unusual. At about 7.40 p.m., around five hours before the attack, a neighbor heard the victim's gate open. Then they thought they heard the sound of breaking glass.

They shined a light out into the victim's yard, but didn't see anything unusual. unusual and they dismissed it. The victims determined the rapist had made off with the male victim's keys and had taken jewelry and cash from the female victim's purse. Oddly, he had only taken half of her cash and left the rest. So we need to talk a little bit about this latest attack. This was a one-off attack in Fremont. The East Area rapist never struck here prior to this attack and he wouldn't strike here again. It's also worth expanding on the fact that the male victim had rental properties in San Jose, and the couple had driven to these properties

hours before the attack. It turned out that at least one of the properties was very close to the San Jose attacks committed by the East Area rapist. It was only about a mile away. And while that could just be a coincidence, to put things in perspective, the city of San Jose is about 180 square miles. So maybe there's a little bit more to it. At the very least, it's another real estate clue in this case. But as we said, this attack in Fremont was the only attack that occurred there. One area that had been struck multiple times was the heart of Contra Costa County. The East Area rapist had struck there in Concord, San Ramon, and Danville. These were all along, the I-680 corridor.

It appeared that he had skipped the city of Walnut Creek, which was in between Concord and Danville. But that would change on June 2nd, 1979, when the East Area Rapist would attack his next victim there in the city of Walnut Creek. At around 10 p.m. on the 200 block of Elda Visiderot, a 17-year-old girl was babysitting for her neighbor. She often babysat at this home on most Saturday nights. The children she was babysitting for were sound asleep in their bedrooms, and the teenager decided to relax at the kitchen table. As she sat there, something caught her attention in the hallway. She looked up and saw a man in a white mask standing there

with a large knife protruding from a leather sheath in his hand. Before she knew what was happening, he raced towards her and pushed her head down to the table. The girl couldn't move. Her head was pinned down to the table. She couldn't look up even if she wanted to. The man hissed angrily to her, shut up and don't make any noise. The intruder pulled the girl up by her left arm and forced it behind her back.

He started to walk her down the hallway before leading her into the master bedroom. The attacker forced the girl face down on the bed and using nylon bindings that were similar to flex cuffs, He tied her hands behind her back tightly. He then tied her ankles together loosely. After she was bound, he used a towel to gag her and placed a halter top over her face. After the teenager was secured, she could hear the man digging through the bedroom closet

and then through drawers. It sounded to her as if the man was sorting through clothes. She then heard him handling the TV set and clock radio that were next to the bed. after a few minutes, the man opened up the sliding glass door leading from the bedroom to the backyard and walked outside. The terrified young girl hoped that the man was gone, but after a minute or two, he walked back inside. The man then warned the girl that if she laid still, he wouldn't kill her. He turned the girl over and started to remove her clothing and untied the bindings on her ankles.

Although her face was covered, she could tell that the man had pulled his pants down and was masturbating. He asked the teenager if she had ever fucked before. The young girl was horrified and she knew what was about to happen. The man sexually assaulted her and during the attack he placed his penis into her bound hands. At times, she could feel what felt like a knife still in the sheath at the side of her neck. After the sexual assault was over, the rapist warned the girl that if she moved, he would slip. her throat. She heard the man once again start rummaging through the room before exiting through the sliding glass door. This time, he didn't return. After several minutes, the victim

felt it was safe. She started to work on getting her bindings off. As soon as she got free, she raced to the phone and called the parents of the children she was babysitting. But during the call, had trouble talking with them and finally hung the phone up. She next called a friend of the family, who in turn called the Walnut Creek Police Department at 10.34 p.m. A nearby police officer arrived at the home just seconds later. Police first called an ambulance and then the girl's parents. They discovered that the children in the home had slept through the attack and were unharmed. Before the victim was taken away to John Muir Hospital for Treatment,

she was able to describe her attacker as being white, about 5 foot 6 with a medium bill, and she described her attack in detail, adding how angry the man seemed at times. The rapist had lightly bitten her breast a few times during the sexual attack, and then at one point had bitten it very hard. And this was something that the East Area rapist was not known to do, even though false rumors had circulated since the early East Area rapist attacks that he was cutting off the nipples of victims. Police at the scene immediately began squashing talk that this attack was the work of the East era rapist. But Contra Costa County investigator Larry Trompton was called into investigate.

And he didn't share the Walnut Creek Police Department's opinion. One of the first things that stood out was the four lease sign on the garage door of a vacant house directly south of the attack. While investigating the exterior of the home or the rape occurred, the police didn't find any footprints. But they did, however, find a gate open. When they talked with the homeowners, they learned that the gate was always kept closed, and they had shut it that night before heading out. Police determined that the suspect had entered the home through an unlocked sliding glass door.

Bloodhounds were brought in to work the crime scene. They picked up a trail that led from the yard to an area near San Jose, Court and San Carlos Drive. This was about half a mile southwest of where the attack occurred. The trail ended near a home that had a swimming pool currently being built. Investigators felt that the rapist had likely parked there and then walked to the scene of the attack. Coincidentally, or not, the victim of this attack lived on San Marino court just a two-minute walk

from where the trail ended. That night, police caught a break that sounded very promising when they heard about a suspicious car that had been pulled over about two and a half miles from the crime scene. The Pleasant Hill Police Department had stopped a car at about 146 a.m. Just off I-680 near Gary Road and North Main Street. They suspected that the man who was driving may have been intoxicated. After questioning him, the man gave them pretextual. permission to search his car. When the police did, they found a large knife and a sheath under the

driver's seat and a pair of underwear. They noticed that the man fit the physical description that had been broadcast that night about the rape suspect. Police were excited. They thought that they may have caught the attacker before he got a chance to make his getaway. They brought in the bloodhounds that had tracked a rapist sent earlier that night to see how they responded. Based on the dog's response, their handlers felt that the driver's scent was consistent with the rapist sent. But further investigation would later rule this suspect out, first through an alibi, and then years later through DNA. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder what's emergency? We just walked in the door and there's

blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, Blood and Water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Back at the crime scene, investigators started to turn their attention to neighbors, hoping that they could shed some light on the attack. It was discovered that on the night of the attack, sometime between nine,

30 and 1130. A bicycle was stolen from a home on Los Banos Court, about a five-minute walk northwest of where the dogs had lost assent. The bike would later be found on Elda Vizadero, a few homes down from the scene of the attack. Other neighbors reported prowlers in the weeks leading up to the attack, and a few of them reported receiving hang-up phone calls. The 17-year-old victim herself had received hang-up phone calls during the month of May. both had her home and while babysitting on El DeVisadero. Women who lived at a residence nearby reported that someone had broken into their home and the only thing that they seemed to have taken were pictures of them.

They too received hang up phone calls. And just a couple of days after the attack, the mother of the victim saw a maroon-colored El Camino parked near her house. house. She thought that it seemed out of place, so she walked towards it to investigate, but as she did, the car sped off. The only description that she could give of the man driving the car was that he was a white male. So with this attack, it was clear early on that the Walnut Creek Police Department didn't think that this rape was the work of the East Area rapist. There were some differences to support this notion. The attacker was described as

being about 5 foot 6, a couple inches shorter than most East Area Rapist descriptions. He also bit the nipple of the victim, something the Easterer rapist didn't really do. But there were also some similarities that made investigators like Larry Crompton feel that this was the work of the East Area Rapist. The way in which he ordered the victim to lie face down and placing his penis in her bound hands were indicators that, that this was likely the East Area Rapist. In the end, this victim would officially be classified by the East Area Rapist Task Force as the rapist's most recent victim.

But the East Area Rapist was not finished with Contra Costa County. In fact, he returned to a city there that he had struck in before, Danville. On June 11th, only nine days after the attack in Walnut Creek, the rapist would strike on the 1,000 block of Allegheny Drive. This area was very close to the scene of the last Anvil attack on Liberta Court. In fact, the homework evidence that was recovered was found very close to Allegheny Drive. At 4 a.m., a husband and wife, both 33 years old, were asleep when something caused the woman to wake up. When she did, there was a man with a flashlight at the foot of the bed.

she sat up and grabbed her husband causing him to wake up. They both looked towards the man holding the flashlight. At that point, the intruder whispered through clenched teeth. Neither one of you motherfuckers move or I'll blow your heads off. They then noticed the gun he was holding. He started to walk closer and told the pair that he just wanted their money. Once the man started walking and the flashlight wasn't as blinding, they could see he was wearing a mask.

He stepped very close to. to the husband's side of the bed and raised the gun to his head and cocked it. And he said, one move and I'll kill every motherfucker in the house. The victims had been totally surprised. They were not in a position to resist. Add on top of that, the fact that they were worried about the safety of their daughters who were asleep in their bedrooms. The intruder ordered the male victim to roll over on his stomach before ordering the man's

wife to tie his hands behind his back using shoelaces that the man had thrown to her. The shoe laces were from the victim's shoes that were in their closet. After the husband was secured, the assailant ordered the female victim down face first and tied her hands as well. He then tied both victims' ankles. After the couple was secured, the attacker told them that he only wanted their money. He said, all I want is the money, and then I can get back to the city or I can kill every motherfucker here and then leave.

The entire time the stranger talked it was through clenched teeth. The woman volunteered that her purse was in the kitchen under the bar and that her husband's wallet was in his pants pocket in the den. The intruder left the victims to retrieve the money and warned them

not to move. He was only gone for a few minutes before he returned. And when he did, he accused the couple, of moving around. He yanked a female victim out of the bed and forced her to walk with him out of the room. He stopped for a moment to gag the male victim with a yellow towel that had been in their bathroom. The attacker marched the woman into the living room and threw her to the floor. He went back in to where the male victim was and covered him with a sheet. He removed several glass bottles from the dresser and placed them on the victim's back.

warning him. If I hear these bottles jingle, I'll blow your fucking head off. The assailant then made his way back to the female victim in the living room to check on her, but found her to still be in the same spot. He then started rummaging through the house, checking various drawers and closets. Every few minutes he would check on the male victim to make sure he was still secured. As he passed by the wife during the ransacking, he told her he was hungry and needed something to eat. She heard him walk into the kitchen. and grab a beer from the refrigerator. He then came back and told her that he wanted to fuck her.

He referred to her by her first name. He approached the victim from behind and placed his penis into her bound hands and told her to play with it. At this point, the attacker untied the woman's ankles and sexually assaulted her. But after just a few minutes, he stopped and tied her ankles together again. He walked off into the kitchen, once again, going through things, And it sounded like he was placing items into paper bags. This was around 4.30 a.m.

And the husband, who was still tied up in the bedroom, heard what sounded to him like a small truck race up the street and stop in front of his house. It sounded as if the truck idled there for almost a minute. Then it raced off again towards El Capitan. The house was silent. And the male victim started to move. a bit after waiting just a few minutes. And then all of a sudden, the man realized that the intruder was standing in the doorway

watching him. The assailant then walked back into the living room. And as he walked by the female victim, he told her that he was going to go out and put some stuff in his van. After a few moments of silence, the male victim peaked at his clock and saw it was 4.45 a.m. and both victims felt that the man who had terrorized them was finally gone. They started trying to free themselves.

The male victim hopped to his oldest daughter's bedroom and found her safe in bed. He woke her up and told her to call police who arrived at the scene at around 5 a.m. Police questioned the victims and got a description of the man that had attacked them. He was in his 20s around 5-5-9. they felt that he had a heavier or stockier build than most of the previous East Area rapist descriptions. But this could have been due to a bulky or heavy sweater they described him as wearing. The point of entry was determined to be a bedroom window and muddy footprints were found in that room. The exit point was the sliding glass door that was standing wide open.

Footprints were found outside the victim's home. they came from a size nine-and-half shoe with a herringbone pattern tread. Similar footprints were found in other nearby yards. Police questioned neighbors to see if they had seen anything of interest. One neighbor reported that his gate was standing wide open, and it had been closed the night before. Another resident had heard a noise at around 2.30 a.m. and had looked outside through the window, but didn't see anything unusual. Still another neighbor saw a newer dark-colored van, Park near El Capitan and Camino Ramon.

Bloodhounds were brought in to try and follow the rapist's scent. They tracked the scent to the intersection of El Capitan and dealt away. Then the scent vanished. Like in the previous Danville attack seven months earlier, the theory was that the Easterer rapist had escaped in a car that he had parked nearby. But unlike the previous Danville attack, there were no homework pages left. behind. Fortunately, the rapist did leave his DNA behind, and it wound up being well preserved, and was the third DNA sample of the East Area Rapists that would later be used to tie his crimes together. Two weeks later, on June 25th, the East Area Rapists would strike on San Pedro

Court in Walnut Creek. As he had done early in the series in Sacramento County, he demonstrated a pattern of bouncing back and forth between towns in the same county, keeping police guessing in the process. At around 4.15 a.m., a.m., a 13-year-old girl woke up to find an intruder with his hand over her mouth. She opened her eyes and tried to make sense of what she was seeing in the darkness. The assailant spoke through a forced whisper, don't say a word, I'm not going to kill you. All I want is money. But as he said these words, he pressed the tip of a knife against her. The man started tying the girl's wrist and ankles together. As he did, he warned her that he would kill her if she made a sound. He then gagged the girl with a braw. The attacker pumped the bottle

of lotion into his hand and started to masturbate in front of the girl. He turned her over and pulled her clothes off and blindfolded her. The girl was terrified and she imagined what would happen of her 17-year-old sister where her father woke up and came into her bedroom. The man addressed her by her first name and told her, Let it drop easy. Give me a good drop or I'll kill you. She didn't know what that meant, but she knew what was about to happen. He then sexually assaulted the teenager.

After he was done with the assault, the man told the girl that if she made a sound, he would kill her. He then said to her that he had to lookie, looky for money. She could hear the man moving around in the darkness and then he left the room. The house fell silent and after a couple of minutes she struggled to get up and hobbled out into the hallway. She started crying out. I've been raped. The girl's father was actually awake. Although his alarm had been set for 4.45, he woke up for some unknown reason just a moment before he heard his daughter. And he stared at the alarm clock that was due to go off in 10 minutes.

When he heard his daughter, he jumped up out of bed and met her in the hallway. The young victim's father found her partially bound in white twine. The commotion woke up the older girl. The father called out to the older daughter to grab something to cut the bindings. She brought back a knife and they freed the 13-year-old victim before calling police. Police received the call at 5 a.m. And an officer was at the scene within a couple minutes. police first questioned the victim and she told them the details of the attack.

She described their attacker as being a white male close to six feet tall and weighing 150 to 160 pounds. He wore some sort of mask. The police questioned the victim's father and sister, but neither of them could add much since they had both slept through the entire attack. The father did tell police that they had all gone to bed the night before at around 10,000. 10 p.m. Before they went to bed, he had walked around and made sure that the house was locked up. But he also added an important detail. He mentioned that at 9 p.m., shortly before they had all gone to bed, the phone rang. His youngest daughter answered it, and there was silence. After the young girl said hello a couple of times, her father took the phone away from her and said hello, and at that point,

the collar hung up. Police didn't find any evidence of windows being pried, but they did find that the chain on the front door had a lot of slack, so much so that it was obvious that somebody without much skill could disengage the chain with minimum effort. Police brought in bloodhounds. The same bloodhounds used to track the East Air Rapist previously. The dog picked up the rapist sent quickly and followed it around the outside of the home and then north on San Carlos before finally losing the scent near San Jose Court. This is the same spot where the dogs had previously tracked the rapist too when he had struck three weeks earlier in Walnut Creek.

Apparently, he had once again parked in the same location and had made his escape undetected. This left little doubt that this 13-year-old was an East Area rapist victim. It turned out that she was the second youngest rape victim. of the entire East Area Rapist series, second to Margaret, who was 12 years old. And like Margaret, the East Area Rapists had attacked her while a parent was home. Out of all the East Area Rapists attacks, only two involved victims whose parents were home at the time, and they just so happened to be the youngest victims.

The East Area Rapist Task Force in Contra Costa County was on high alert over the next week. But when that next week came and went with no attack, they turned their attention to the 4th of July holiday. But the 4th came and went as well with no attacks. But in the early morning hours of July 6th, 1979, the East Area rapist would strike in Contra Costa County once again. This time, back in Danville on Sycamore Court, just over two miles from his previous Danville attack. The victims in this attack would be a 33-year-old woman and her 32-year-old husband. Just before 4 a.m., the husband, who was a light sleeper, awoke to a rustling sound. He opened his eyes and across the bedroom near the master bathroom,

he saw the outline of a man who was slowly pulling a ski mask down over his face. Unfortunately for this intruder, this couple had formulated a plan should the East Era rapist ever show up at their home. and they immediately sprung into action to carry it out. The plan was for the husband to rush the attacker no matter what and confront him while his wife escaped. Sticking to the plan, the husband jumped out of bed and raced towards the intruder who looked shocked to see the man confronting him.

He didn't have a gun in his hand yet and the husband yelled obscenities at the intruder saying, who the fuck do you think you are? in part because his adrenaline had kicked in, but also to ensure that his wife had been alerted. The husband stood in a fighting stance between the doorway leading out of the bedroom and the man who was near the bathroom. And this plan went smoothly because the wife ran by him and out of the bedroom door into the hallway. Once the husband saw that his wife had made it out, he turned again towards. the intruder who meekly stared back at him and just stood there blinking, like a kid who had been

caught putting his hands into the cookie jar. After a moment, the husband raced out behind his wife, never turning back to see if the intruder was following them. They escaped through the backsliding door, and unlike past instances, when a neighbor heard the couple screaming in their backyard, they picked up the phone and called police just after 4 a.m. and police were there within minutes. They entered the home searching it to ensure the intruder wasn't inside. He wasn't. Police took notice that the victim's residence was a condominium. And although the East Area rapist had struck a condo or apartment before, it wasn't his usual style.

Police wanted to identify the entry point as well as the exit point so they could start searching for him. The front door was locked from inside with. a deadbolt. So the only way the intruder could have escaped through that door was if he had a key for it and locked it as he left. They also checked doors in the garage. The entry door leading into the garage was usually kept unlocked because there was something wrong with the lock mechanism and it was extremely hard to lock. But when police examined the door, it was locked. The only other way out through the lock, the only other way out through the lock. the garage was through the powered garage door, which was closed. Police did notice that the driver's door to the victim's car, a Porsche, was ajar. But they weren't sure if the intruder had entered the vehicle or if the owner had not closed it all the way when he parked it. The neighbors that called

police immediately looked out their window and into the victim's front yard upon hearing their screams, but they didn't see anyone moving. And like they had done before, police brought in the bloodhounds. It took the bloodhounds a little bit of time to pick up dissent. But when they did, they picked it up in the hallway and that led them out into the backyard. The dogs tracked the scent through a large open field in the area behind the condos, but they lost it on the other side to the field. Back at the crime scene, police questioned the couple in order to get specific details of the intruder. The pair described the man as being about 5'10 to 6 feet tall and weighing about 160 pounds. They felt he was in his mid-20s. He was wearing a ski mask that looked homemade

and didn't come down over his entire chin. They also noticed that he was wearing a dark windbreaker with lettering on the left side of the jacket. The lettering appeared to be gold or white and started with a C. It was a short word, perhaps Coors, Coach, or Corn, something along those lines, but they couldn't be sure. Since the male victim had seen him before he pulled the mask down, police felt that this was the best chance they had to find out what the East Area rapists looked like, assuming that this was him. They later put the victim under hypnosis, and he further detailed the intruder's face.

A partial sketch was made from the description. but has not been released publicly. After seeing the sketch, I can tell you that I don't fully agree with the description that accompanied the sketch, but it reads as follows. Iris is large, possibly hazel-colored eyes,

possibly a small, thin mouth, possibly a square-shaped chin. While walking through the area searching for the suspect, police discovered a man who fit the general description of the intruder. He appeared to be a man. be living out of his car. They walked up on him as he was using a pair of pants to clean off his

back window. They questioned him and felt that he didn't belong in the area. They arranged for the victims to see him and they felt that based on his build, which they described as a wiry football player, he could have been the man they saw. Later, however, police would rule him out as being the East Area Rapists. As police questioned residents in the area, they discovered that there were a couple homes for sale. In fact, a home very close to the victim

had an open house a couple weeks prior to the attack, and it attracted many people. Police continued to check with other neighbors. They found one on nearby Thornhill Road, who had reported a prowler six days earlier on June 30th. Her home was currently up for sale. A resident reported that some of the buildings nearby were in the process.

of being painted around the time of the attack. This is an interesting detail. As we mentioned before, there were blue paint flakes found at several crime scenes during the East Era Rapist series. Perhaps he could have been involved in the painting project. Other neighbors reported receiving hang-up phone calls in the days prior to the attack, and one reported that someone had opened up her sliding glass door. But despite all of the activity and the quick response by police,

police, the intruder slipped through the dragnet. Police came to believe that this intruder was definitely the East Area Rapist, and this was considered an official East Area Rapist attack. The most crucial thing to come out of this attack was that it was the first time that the East Area Rapist had been witnessed without his mask on. So police now had something to work with, and they felt that this might be the clue that could help solve the case. But just when the investigators felt

that they had gotten their best break up to that point, the East Area Rapists vanished. Days turned into weeks and weeks in the months. Summer passed and turned to fall. And there wasn't another crime attributed to the East Area rapist in any of the Northern California counties that he had struck in. Some theorized that being seen without his mask on

sent the rapist into a panic and that he feared that he might be identified, which forced him to stop attacking. For investigator, Larry Krompin, not catching the Easterer rapist, weighed heavily on him. And you talk, you get it in your head. I have a job to do. My job is to catch this person before he hurts anybody else.

It just gets worse as you don't catch him. And then I would wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning. And I would say many, many years before I got it in my head, It wasn't about me. I never did get it out of my head. It's still there. Larry Crompton would go on to retire and he would write a book about the case called Sudden Terror,

which we highly recommend. But even though Larry had retired, he wasn't done with the case. And in fact, he would be instrumental in linking the East Area rapist to a new set of crimes. But we'll get to those in episode 11. And episode 11 is going to drop Saturday. Saturday, May 5th, while we're at CrimeCon.

And once again, if you're there, if you're going to CrimeCon, please make sure you stop by and say hi. We hope to see you there. If you're going to CrimeCon, in the case of the East Area Rapist's Golden State Killer Hed has hooked you, there will be plenty of activities that are dealing with the case, from panel discussions to booths where you can talk to some of the brave women that you've heard this season on criminology.

Be sure to check all of that out. And we're going to keep saying it. If you have tips or info about this case, please call 1-800 call FBI. We want to again thank all of our Patreon supporters as well as all of the people that are supporting us on social media, retweeting, sharing our posts, telling their friends about the podcast. All of that makes a huge difference. And also, big thanks to all of you that have taken the time to go out and leave the show a rating and a review. All of this support has been helping the show to grow. We definitely appreciate everybody spreading the word about criminology on social media.

If you want to find us on social media, you can find us on Twitter with the handle Criminology Pod, or you can find us on Facebook by searching Criminology Podcast. You can also join our Facebook discussion group, Criminology Podcast Discussion and Fans. And we want to introduce you to a newer true crime podcast that we think you'll really enjoy. It's from our friends at A Date with Dateline podcast. Diabolical. Vengeance.

Betrayal. Bad hair. Leaning. Hi, everyone. This is Kimberly. And this is Katie. And we have a weekly podcast called A Date with Dateline. A recap of Dateline episodes.

We talk about important issues like grainy surveillance footage, cell phone towers, Andrea Canning's white jeans, and Mankees-Hankies. We delve into the details of any victim who's ever loved life or lit up a room. So find us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and iTunes to make a date with Dateline. And remember, don't watch alone. A Date With Dateline is a podcast hosted by two professional amateur true crime TV experts with no formal training but evidence lockers filled with snark and uninformed opinions. And then if you haven't checked it out yet, make sure you check out Forensic Files, the podcast. This one, Morph, it just takes me back to watching Forensic Files.

That was a show that I really loved. The cases. We got to find who wrote this note. We do that. We find the killer. The science. To find out police used luminal, a chemical which glows when it comes into contact with the iron component in blood. The drama.

But where was the rifle? And which man was telling the truth? Forensic files. The legendary true crime show is now a podcast. Join investigators as they take on the toughest cases with cutting-edge scientific tools. Subscribe now with Apple Podcasts. With new episodes every Monday and Thursday,

you'll never miss out on getting your forensic fix.