On Tuesday, July 6th, a U. Missouri-St.Louis student was abducted and sexually assaulted by an unknown assailant who remains at large. The student was abducted by the armed assailant at around 10 p.m. as she was approaching her parked car in the 8200 block of Natural Bridge. The student was forced at gunpoint to drive to a location in Normandy where the assailant sexually assaulted her. Following this, he forced her to drive to a gas station on natural bridge and withdraw money from an ATM. The student used this opportunity to call 911 while the assailant drove away in her car.
Hampering the investigation is the fact that the assailant wore a ski mask during the entire incident, which has kept police from drawing up a facial composite of the individual to help identify him. A Clery Release sent out by UM-St.Louis police to all students and university faculty about the incident describes the suspect as being a 5’5” to 5’6” African American male in his mid to late 20s weighing around 150 pounds.
Despite the lack of an accurate description of the suspect, there has been some progress on the case. The student’s car, a grey 2007 Nissan Altima, was discovered abandoned in the 3400 block of Lucas and Hunt on Wednesday. St.Louis County police have impounded the vehicle and are in the process of searching it for forensic evidence. According to UM-St.Louis spokesperson Bob Samples, the student was treated at a nearby hospital and a rape kit was performed.
This incident comes seven months after two assaults on the UM-St.Louis campus in December of 2009. The two incidents happened within 24 hours of each other, one involved an attack on a female student in a bathroom located in the Social Science Building on north campus, the other involving the sexual assault of a female student on south campus. In the wake of those incidents, UM-St. Louis police responded by offering students self-defense classes and increased patrols on campus. In addition, the Student Government Association responded by canvassing campus shortly thereafter to identify areas with low lighting and to identify other safety concerns.
SGA president Dan Rosner, expressed shock over the latest incident. “Something like this is very difficult to prevent. When a person commits a crime of this magnitude, he or she is definitely on a mission and the successfulness of the deterrence the university puts in place becomes less. Both the administrators and the police department are working very diligently to reexamine areas around campus in regards to safety to help prevent another attack like this.” Rosner said.
Although both UM-St. Louis and Normandy police were called in initially to investigate the incident, because of the nature of it, St. Louis County police are handling the investigation, with UM-St. Louis and Normandy police assisting. UM-St.Louis police refused to comment on the investigation, referring all inquires to university spokesperson Bob Samples and university police have not commented on what, if any, action they have taken in response to the incident.
As of press time, no arrests have been made in the incident.