Tulsa Police form task force to find serial rapist

Tulsa Police investigators say the same man has terrorized at least seven female victims, ranging from age 4 to 20. They're looking into the possibility he may have sexually assaulted several more

Wednesday, October 5th 2005, 10:47 am

By: News On 6

Tulsa Police investigators say the same man has terrorized at least seven female victims, ranging from age 4 to 20. They're looking into the possibility he may have sexually assaulted several more over the last two years.

News on 6 Anchor Tami Marler says the Tulsa Police Sex Crimes division will have more resources to look for the serial rapist. Police plan a task force to find him.

Someone's been targeting children and young women all over the city, at a time when Tulsa Police are working under tight budget constraints.

"Every day, every night, walk around, make it your ritual. Make sure the windows are shut. Make sure the windows are locked. Just because you don't think that you opened the window, doesn't mean it's not open. Shut it, lock it, check it, double check it. That's what you have to do."

It's not the way this mother thought she'd ever have to raise her daughter, especially not in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but when news reports started popping up about young girls being sexually assaulted in their own homes, they no longer had the luxury of believing it would never happen to them.

"I thought the same exact thing. And I still think, what a dream. But it's just reality."

Since her daughter's attack, several other girls have been attacked, by the same man, in different parts of the city.

A young, white man enters through an open window or unlocked door when everyone's asleep.

"This is not an opinion, it's a fact. And for as long as it's gone on, you can't expect two or three people, four people, tops, to find one person who is faceless. If there was a name attached to the DNA they would've found him. They're not sitting there doing nothing."

The mother says sex crimes detectives are doing their best to find a man who's been given many faces by those who've been unfortunate enough to cross his path.

Tulsa Police have now been given the "go ahead" to devote more resources to their sex crimes division and nab the man who's terrorized the city. Investigators have confirmed the same man is responsible in seven attacks that started in February of 2004, but believe another four cases could be related.

After they released a series of composite sketches[Click here to see the composites] Tuesday, the Crimestoppers tip line was inundated with dozens of calls from people with information about the attacker.

Tulsa Police Sgt. Kim Presley says, following up on all those tips will take a lot of manpower. "Anything from the field detectives that we might pull into that unit. Officers that we might have out on the street that we bring into the detective division. Using what we call the criminal investigation unit. And putting them into that group and do some gathering of data and going out and really targeting this person before he hits again."

Sgt. Presley says they've received so many Crimestoppers tips; they may have to set up a separate tip line for the serial rapist.

For now, anyone with specific information that might help catch this guy should call Crimestoppers at 596-COPS. You can remain anonymous.