Law officers in the Omaha/Council Bluffs area are joining efforts in searching for a suspected serial rapist. Omaha Police Officer Michael Pecha says there are indications at least four attacks were all carried out by the same suspect. “The similarities, the female victims have been walking in either the northeast or southeast parts of the city,” Pecha says. “The assaults have occurred during late afternoon or early morning hours.”
Pecha says the suspect also abducted the victims in the same manner. Pecha says, “In each of these cases, the suspect was armed and threatened the victims before forcing them into their vehicle and taking them to secluded areas.”
Pottawattamie County (Iowa) Sheriff Jeff Danker says his department is also working on the case because three of the four victims were taken to rural areas near Council Bluffs and assaulted. He says they have taken D.N.A. samples and came up with a match.
Sheriff Danker says, “They are going to be sending us the information that verifies that two are related.” Danker says it’s clear the same man assaulted at least two of the victims.
He says, “The assault that occurred on August 1st of ’09 and the one that occurred on June 10th of 2010 are related.” The suspect is described as a white male, about 45 years of age, 5-foot-6, weighing from 200 to 250 pounds with a potbelly. He was driving an older model, four-door, red vehicle.
By Karla James