Face of a Rapist? Suspect on Tape
Woman attacked at gunpoint in Wal-Mart lot, in car occupied by daughter, 15 mos.
April 9, 2008— -- The search continued this morning for a man who authorities say raped a woman at gunpoint in an Orlando store parking lot as her 15-month-old daughter looked on, then stuffed the victim in the trunk of her car and fled in another vehicle.
"The trail is hot," Jim Solomons, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Office, told ABC News late Tuesday "We're working this one pretty hard."
The alleged assault took place around 6:15 a.m. Tuesday in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart location.
As the woman exited her vehicle, she was approached by a man with a gun who ordered her back into her car, drove her and her daughter to the back of the store and sexually battered the mother in front of the child, according to Solomons.
After the sexual assault, the suspect tried to lock the woman in the trunk of the car, but the latch did not catch and the woman got out of the trunk and drove home, calling police around 6:45 a.m. to report the crime, Solomons said.
The woman was transported to a crisis center, where she was interviewed by detectives. "The more we talked to her, the clearer it became this was a legitimate event," Solomons said.
Meanwhile, the suspect was spotted on surveillance cameras using the victim's debit card at the drive-through ATM of a nearby bank at 6:48 a.m. The suspect successfully withdrew money from the account.
Surveillance footage from Wal-Mart showed the suspect waiting in the parking lot of the store for up to a half-hour before the victim arrived. "It's almost as if he was looking for a victim," Solomons said.
The woman provided authorities with a description of the suspect and a composite sketch has been commissioned.
The man is about 5 feet tall, weighing 125 pounds with shaved brown hair and a tattoo on his elbow from his forearm to wrist featuring some type of cursive writing.
He was wearing a black shirt and blue jean shorts and appears to be driving some type of SUV in the surveillance images released by the Orange County Sheriff's Office.
Related Stories
ABC News Live