O.C. Attacks Linked to Long Beach Rapist

Police said Thursday that they believe the man who attacked two women in Los Alamitos this month is the “Belmont Shore rapist” suspected in at least nine assaults in Long Beach and Orange County since 1997.

“As long as this guy’s loose, you’d have to say that every woman is at risk,” said Sgt. Jeff Travis, a Los Alamitos Police Department spokesman.

Evidence at the scenes of the Los Alamitos attacks linked them to the earlier crimes, Travis said. He would not elaborate. “We’re kind of keeping it under wraps,” he said. “If the suspect doesn’t know that he’s leaving it, I don’t want to tell him.”

The Los Alamitos attacks occurred May 11, when a man entered a home at the Royal Oak Mobile Home Park on Oak Street about 1:20 a.m. and raped a 71-year-old woman. An hour later, the same man is believed to have assaulted a 68-year-old woman who lives nearby.

Both women were treated at a hospital for minor injuries. Though the intruder did not rape the second woman, police said, he stole her beige 1987 Honda Accord, license number 2DWF746.

The car theft was a departure from previous attacks and may provide clues that lead to the man’s arrest, said Officer David Marander, a Long Beach police spokesman. That agency has been investigating the string of rapes there and one in Huntington Beach over the last five years. “Concealing a car is a major undertaking,” Marander said. “Our officers are looking for it everywhere.”

Victims have described the rapist as white, with a medium build, 5-foot-7 to 5-foot-11 and 25 to 35 years old.