Sketch of kidnap suspect released

Police say finding the man who abducted and sexually assaulted a child Saturday is a top priority.

By AMY HERDY and SARAH LUECK

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 16, 1999

TAMPA -- Police released a composite sketch Tuesday of a man wanted for the brazen kidnapping and sexual assault of a young girl snatched from the parking lot of a Tampa health food store.

They are hoping someone recognizes the man called the "cross-dressing rapist" because investigators think he has often worn women's clothes while committing 17 other attacks or attempted attacks in Tampa and unincorporated Hillsborough County since October.

"Someone knows this individual. He obviously lives next door to someone, works with someone," Tampa police Sgt. Bill Rousseau said at a news conference Tuesday.

The man is described as white, 20 to 30 years old, with short, curly brown hair and a brown mustache.

He was last seen wearing a white T-shirt and black or navy Speedo-type shorts. He was driving a late-model red or maroon pickup truck with tinted windows. The truck's lowered tailgate prevented witnesses from getting a license tag number.

Tampa police have formed a task force, assigned additional officers to the case and established a tip line, (813) 276-3550. Rousseau said lead Detective J.D. Tindall's work load of 25 to 30 other cases was reassigned, making this case his sole priority.

Although police have been looking for the attacker since November, Saturday's assault sparked a massive response, with dozens of officers checking out leads and pulling over red pickup trucks across the city.

While the same cross-dressing man is suspected of raping two women in the county last fall, Saturday marked the first time he had managed to abduct and assault a victim in the city, Rousseau said.

"We actually had a kid abducted and sexually assaulted," he said. "In anybody's mind, that ought to take (the investigation) up a notch."

The 8-year-old was grabbed from an unlocked Toyota 4Runner, which was parked at Nature's Harvest on N MacDill Avenue while her mother shopped. The man opened the car door, Rousseau said, wrapped both arms around the girl and pulled her out, muffling her screams with one hand.

He drove off with the child in a red pickup truck, sexually assaulted her and dropped her off an hour later several miles away.

A witness to the abduction called 911 at 4:32 p.m. "I saw a guy driving a red truck grab a girl around the neck and throw her into his car," the witness said. "She was screaming. I don't know if it's his child or what, but it didn't look right."

The witness said the man was wearing "little pants like a swimsuit."

Although the witness described a mustache, the man in the composite sketch released by police Tuesday is clean-shaven.

That's because it was based on the memory of several witnesses, Rousseau said, and is meant to merely be a likeness.

"This is not supposed to look exactly like the suspect," he said.

In the months since the attacks began, investigators have been unsure if there was a single suspect or two suspects because of discrepancies in how victims described him, the truck and his behavior.

A Sheriff's Office composite sketch varies in many ways from the police sketch released Tuesday. Rousseau thinks there is a single man responsible for the attacks in the city. Sheriff's investigators agree the Tampa suspect has committed crimes in their jurisdiction but leave the possibility open that another person has committed some of the attacks.

Tampa detectives and sheriff's investigators are working together on the case. Sheriff's Capt. Robert Shrader said the Sheriff's Office has multiple detectives on the case.

"As we need people to run down additional leads, we pull whoever we need," Shrader said.

The attack Saturday alarmed everyone, he said.

"When he reaches a point where he opens car doors and drags children out and is undeterred by witnesses," he said, "he's more dangerous than before."

-- Times staff writer Kathryn Wexler contributed to this report.

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