In an accompanying piece about the “East Coast Rapist” I posted entries about this weekend, the Washington Post published some interesting answers about DNA and the case in response to readers’ questions:
>>DNA questions, answers about the ‘East Coast Rapist’
Readers of the story and interactive about the so-called ‘East Coast Rapist’ submitted a number of questions about the DNA methods used in the investigation.
In yesterday’s entry, I printed the first half of an article from the Washington Post regarding a serial rapist in the Washington, DC, area. Here’s the conclusion:
>>Three months later, the rapist attacked two Prince George’s teenagers at gunpoint as they walked home from the Marlow Heights shopping center near the Beltway. He forced the two into the woods in what would be the first time he raped two people in a single incident. The wooded ravine is similar to the scene of the recent Prince William attack.
Days after Christmas 2001, a 29-year-old mother of four from Fairfax was running late for her 7 p.m. work shift. She pulled on a turtleneck, a T-shirt, a sweat shirt and a coat and waited at a bus stop in the Alexandria section of the county.
She saw a man smoking a cigarette and thought he was being polite by standing back at the edge of the woods. He came closer and asked whether she knew when the next bus would arrive.
But the man didn’t want an answer. “I have a weapon — follow me,” he said. She caught a glimpse of a knife handle in his coat pocket.
As he led her down the street, the bus went by, too late to help. He demanded money. When she insisted that she had none, he didn’t believe her.
“You work all the time,” he said. He was right. She had two jobs, one at Ames and the other in a fast-food restaurant. She thought he could not have known that unless he had been watching her.
I know that it has been a while since this story appeared in the Washington Post, but I work with some ladies who remain concerned about this rapist. It is interesting that in this age of DNA evidence and CSi-like precision, someone can still get away with rape. I want to get the entire article in, so I’m running it in two parts. The concluding part will run tomorrow.
>>After 13 years, police still hunting for the East Coast Rapist
By Josh White and Maria Glod
He lurks at gas stations and pay phones and bus stops, blending in so well that people don’t notice him at first. He has a smooth, deep voice. He is black, he smokes and he is right-handed. He is in his early to mid-30s, is fit, stands about 6 feet tall, likes wearing camouflage clothes and black hats, and once had a badly chipped tooth.
The man studies women carefully. He watches them leave for work and walk home from the mall, and he notices whether they lock their windows and doors. He knows when they are most vulnerable and when they are home alone with their children. He stalks them in neighborhoods he knows well.
Then he rapes them and vanishes.
He is the East Coast Rapist. And police know so much about this man. They even have his DNA. But when it comes right down to it, he is a frustrating mystery. No one has been able to find him.
