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Serial Florida Rapist

Aired September 10, 2003 - 12:59   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: We begin today in Miami, where there is word of new developments in the case of a serial rapist in the Little Havana area. A suspect, depicted in a composite sketch, is blamed for no fewer than seven attacks on women there.
CNN's Susan Candiotti is live now from Miami with the very latest.

Hello to you -- Susan.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Heidi.

This latest incident occurred Saturday night, and it was an attempted assault, not a rape. But police now have been able to link it to six other attacks, police say, through DNA evidence.

And in the case of Saturday night's incident, the attacker nearly met his match. It was an attempted assault, as we said. The intended victim screamed. Relatives came running to help. And, in fact, fists started flying, and that's when the attacker was left with a split lip.

They made a sketch of the man. Here's what that looked like. And as you can see in a moment, it very closely resembles a sketch that was made after the other six attacks. All of these incidents started happening a year ago next year. The first one, September 17 of the year 2002. The youngest victim, 11 years old; the oldest victim linked through DNA, 79 years old.

Of course, this man has not been caught as yet. And police have been -- despite efforts by the police, they've been trying just about everything. In this case, they hope -- are more hopeful than they have been in the past because they got a description of a car that he was driving, as well as a partial license plate tag.

So we are expecting a formal announcement about all of this at 2:00 this afternoon, with Miami Police Chief John Timoney.

COLLINS: Susan, just wondering, how large of an area now are they searching in Miami? Because it seems like, for a while there, in the beginning, it was just a 30-square mile area. But that was quite some time ago. Have they expanded the search now?

CANDIOTTI: Oh, no. It's a small -- relatively small area.

All of the attacks occurred -- it's important to point out -- not throughout the city of Miami but in one area, a neighborhood called the Shenandoah Area, which is somewhat near Little Havana if you're familiar with downtown Miami. And police are -- we want to point out that they were very thankful for the relative of the intended victim in this case, as you're about to hear from him. He almost stopped the attacker.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He had my sister-in-law from the back. When he saw me, I -- he tried to escape and I jump on him and we fought.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: (AUDIO GAP) case. That is how they were able to obtain some forensic evidence, and they put a rush on it, did get analysis of it, and those results are being made public this day.

COLLINS: All right, very good. Susan Candiotti, thanks so much for the update on that. We'll wait to hear more later. Live from Miami this afternoon.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired September 10, 2003 - 12:59   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: We begin today in Miami, where there is word of new developments in the case of a serial rapist in the Little Havana area. A suspect, depicted in a composite sketch, is blamed for no fewer than seven attacks on women there.
CNN's Susan Candiotti is live now from Miami with the very latest.

Hello to you -- Susan.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Heidi.

This latest incident occurred Saturday night, and it was an attempted assault, not a rape. But police now have been able to link it to six other attacks, police say, through DNA evidence.

And in the case of Saturday night's incident, the attacker nearly met his match. It was an attempted assault, as we said. The intended victim screamed. Relatives came running to help. And, in fact, fists started flying, and that's when the attacker was left with a split lip.

They made a sketch of the man. Here's what that looked like. And as you can see in a moment, it very closely resembles a sketch that was made after the other six attacks. All of these incidents started happening a year ago next year. The first one, September 17 of the year 2002. The youngest victim, 11 years old; the oldest victim linked through DNA, 79 years old.

Of course, this man has not been caught as yet. And police have been -- despite efforts by the police, they've been trying just about everything. In this case, they hope -- are more hopeful than they have been in the past because they got a description of a car that he was driving, as well as a partial license plate tag.

So we are expecting a formal announcement about all of this at 2:00 this afternoon, with Miami Police Chief John Timoney.

COLLINS: Susan, just wondering, how large of an area now are they searching in Miami? Because it seems like, for a while there, in the beginning, it was just a 30-square mile area. But that was quite some time ago. Have they expanded the search now?

CANDIOTTI: Oh, no. It's a small -- relatively small area.

All of the attacks occurred -- it's important to point out -- not throughout the city of Miami but in one area, a neighborhood called the Shenandoah Area, which is somewhat near Little Havana if you're familiar with downtown Miami. And police are -- we want to point out that they were very thankful for the relative of the intended victim in this case, as you're about to hear from him. He almost stopped the attacker.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He had my sister-in-law from the back. When he saw me, I -- he tried to escape and I jump on him and we fought.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: (AUDIO GAP) case. That is how they were able to obtain some forensic evidence, and they put a rush on it, did get analysis of it, and those results are being made public this day.

COLLINS: All right, very good. Susan Candiotti, thanks so much for the update on that. We'll wait to hear more later. Live from Miami this afternoon.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.