Times staff writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 14, 1999
TAMPA -- An 8-year-old girl was recovering at home Sunday after her abduction and sexual assault the previous day by a man police say may be responsible for more than a dozen similar attacks.
"She's fine, thank you," the girl's mother said, while declining to speak further about the case Sunday.
Meanwhile, authorities continued the search for the assailant's red pickup truck.
Tampa police and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office fielded calls about red trucks Sunday, but calls from media outlets seemed to outstrip tips. Tampa police Lt. M.C. Rendall issued a statement asking reporters to limit their calls.
Police are looking for a white man in his 30s, 6 feet tall, 180 pounds, with curly brown hair and a mustache. He was driving a red pickup truck and was wearing a long white T-shirt over a black or dark-blue Speedo-style swimsuit.
The man was seen dragging the girl by the neck from her mother's Toyota 4Runner outside Nature's Harvest Market on N MacDill Avenue on Saturday.
The girl's mother, who is not being named to protect the identity of her child, told police she left the girl and her 20-month-old brother in the sport utility vehicle.
Anyone having information about the suspect can call Tampa police at (813) 273-0770.
Blaze damages home near Countryside country club
CLEARWATER -- An expensive home northeast of the Countryside Golf and Country Club caught fire Sunday afternoon, destroying a recreation room and engulfing much of the roof.
The home at 3281 Landmark Drive was vacant at the time, and no one was injured. The 4,865-square-foot residence was about to be leased to new tenants, said Randy Bacher, a district fire chief on the scene.
Sunday evening, fire officials were still investigating the cause of the fire.
Two people were killed in separate car accidents Saturday on Interstate 75 in Sumter County.
Jeri O. Mort, 44, of Brandon, died in the first crash. She was driving a 1993 Buick north about 10 a.m. when she went off I-75 about two miles south of the bridge at Lake Panasoffkee, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
Three passengers were treated at Leesburg Regional Hospital for minor injuries: Jane Close, 10, of Gibsonton; and Kim Martin, 14, and Shawna Mossman, 15, both of Brandon.
In a separate fatal crash about 4:30 p.m. Saturday, 6-year-old Rob Sapp of Naples died.
Rob, a girl, was riding in a 1987 Pontiac driven by Christine Buchel on the Lake Panasoffkee bridge, the site of several recent fatal accidents, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
Buchel, 40, and another passenger, Elidora Trejo, 20, were treated for minor injuries at Leesburg Regional Hospital.
FHP officials said Buchel's northbound car collided with a 1972 Ford truck broken down in the right emergency lane on the bridge, after two other cars collided in the left lane of traffic.
Benjamin Rebolledo, 25, of Hialeah, tried to change lanes on the bridge, and his 1986 Nissan clipped a 1999 Dodge truck. The collision cause Rebolledo to hit Buchel's car, which ran into the disabled truck, officials said.
Rebolledo was charged with improper lane change and may face more charges pending the results of the FHP investigation.
It was the third fatal accident on the bridge in a month, and the second in four days. A 12-vehicle pileup Wednesday killed 70-year-old Georgia Logan of St. Petersburg.
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