After one attack, police sent up a helicopter to look for him. Another assault prompted a door-to-door search. In another case, a would-be victim fired a gun at him when he broke into her apartment.
But a serial rapist who terrorized nine women in Denver, Aurora and Arapahoe County seems to have disappeared.
“It’s kind of strange that this individual has dropped off the radar,” Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson said. “Maybe he moved to another state, or he’s deceased. There is no way of telling where he could be at this time.”
In all, nine women were assaulted from November 2004 through July 2005, and police believe it was by the same man. Six of the attacks happened in the southeast part of the metro area and three were in central Denver.
Sexual assault charges were filed against “John Doe,” by the Denver district attorney based solely on the DNA profile that linked all the Denver victims. The rapist also attempted to assault several other women but they managed to get away or scare him off.
Brent Turvey, author of “The Rape Investigation Handbook,” said it’s not likely the rapist has suddenly decided to quit attacking women. More likely is that he’s left the area and could be attacking elsewhere.
“It is an assumption that he has stopped and no one has heard from him,” Turvey said. “He could be operating anywhere.”
One reason he may have eluded authorities is that rapists go to great lengths to disguise themselves once they know that law enforcement is onto them, Turvey said. He even knows of one rapist who had a vasectomy thinking it would prevent his DNA from being detected.
Authorities can also hope that the rapist messes up wherever he is and ends up in jail. Once that happens, his DNA will be collected and entered into the FBI database.
Investigators may one day get lucky.
In the meantime, all they can do is wait and keep in touch with one another and regularly run the suspect’s DNA through the FBI database, hoping for a hit.
Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson doesn’t think the rapist hurt anyone in his jurisdiction since Jan. 11, 2005.
In that case, the rapist forced himself into a woman’s home in the 9100 block of East Florida Avenue and assaulted her.
“We’ve had no additional sexual assault that we can attribute to that individual,” Robinson said. “There are no further leads that I am aware of.”
Aurora authorities also report no new information that would suggest the rapist has offended again.
The attacks in that city stopped shortly after a woman fired a gun at him in the 9800 block of East Mexico Avenue in September. The woman heard a person inside her apartment and once he approached her bedroom doorway, she fired a shot, missing him.
“If someone remembers something that they did not know a year ago, feel free to call us,” Jackson said.
Staff writer Felisa Cardona can be reached at 303-820-1219 or at fcardona@denverpost.com.
How to help
Situation: Assault of nine women from November 2004 through July 2005
Wanted: A muscular black man, 170 to 200 pounds,
6 feet to 6 feet 3 inches tall, bald with mark or scar on his nose; seen with and without eyeglasses
Whom to call: Phone Crime Stoppers, 720-913-STOP
