Sperry Residents On Alert As Search For Teen's Attacker Continues

Authorities are still on the hunt for a man who attacked a Sperry teenager as she walked home from school. The 15 year old was able to fight off her attacker on the Osage Prairie Trail Monday afternoon.

03/26/2012 Related Story: Police Searching For Man In Attempted Sperry Rape

The Tulsa County Sheriff's Office says what happened Monday could have been much worse if not for the quick thinking of the 15 year old girl.

The young woman was walking home on the path, between 96th Street North and 86th Street North on the south side of Sperry.

Investigators say a man was hiding in the bushes just off the concrete trail, hit her in the back of the head with either a rock or a stick, and then tried to sexually assault her.

But the 15 year old didn't back down.

"She obviously had signs of an attack where she had marks on her extremities where she was fighting back an attacker," said Sergeant Shannon Clark with the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office.

The man got away and the girl was taken to the hospital. Clark said she is doing much better.

Investigators were back at the trail Tuesday morning looking for clues and the Sperry police chief spent much of the day at the school talking with administrators.

June Lane lives right next to the trail along with her husband and three little watchdogs. She says she never heard anything Monday afternoon, but her neighbors are on the lookout.

"I haven't been around anything like this before," Lane said.

Investigators admit they don't have much of a description to go on; just that he's a white man who's tall and slender. But they have no doubt he was trying to rape the girl before she fought back.

"Your only hope is to scream, fight, kick, do anything that you can to resist your attackers efforts because if you don't, we don't know what the end result will be," Clark said.

Residents say they're keeping a closer eye on the town now and are shocked that such a potentially violent crime would happen in their community.

"Especially around here, it doesn't seem like stuff like that happens around this area," Lane said.

The sheriff's office is asking anyone who information about this case to give them a call at 918-596-8661.