Woman confronts attacker's 'pure evil' or is it something supernatural

Saturday September 18, 1999 The Toronto Star
Pg. A03

Woman confronts attacker's 'pure evil'

She felt she was in the presence of "Pure Evil".

A Darkened room: a poke in the ribs; being suddenly jolted from deep sleep by a faceless, hooded figure obscured by shadows.

"Seeing the hood and no face, I could make out a figure. It just went into the pit of my stomach, the feeling of evil."

These are the words of a woman who awoke to a nightmare and the struggle of her life on a hot and sultry night in early August, finding an intruder at her bedside - the sexual predator some have dubbed the "Scarborough Bedroom Rapist."

The middle-aged woman says she was lying face down and in a deep sleep when the intruder first jabbed her in the ribs. In her groggy state, she at first thought it was one of her adult children coming into her second-floor bedroom to mooch bus fare.

Then suddenly, she was seized by violent hands grabbing her body and shaking her into a panicked wakefulness. "He just shook me and all of a sudden - I couldn't breath!" says the woman, sitting on her porch recounting the tale that has robbed her of her sense of security in her own home.
She says she didn't scream; she needed all her energy reserves to fight off the menace intent on overpowering her.
"I just focused on survival, the physical stress of resisting."
She flailed, she twisted, she struck out with an ever-increasing sense of sheer terror that she was losing the battle.
"You just resist. It takes all of your energy. It just seems to go on for so long."
Despite being a woman of large build, he had all the advantages. On his side, he had the element of surprise and the fear of a victim finding an intruder in her home.
The she felt her energy collapse. She had no wind left, her breath was gone. The predator was on the verge of getting what he came for or worse."He could have killed me at that point," she says.
I was kaput...I had sustained as much (fighting) as I could."
As if caught in some surreal nightmare, she is unclear on what happened next. But she found herself falling from her bed, descending through the air with the intruder still in tow.

In desperation, she called out into the night; "Oh Jesus, help me."
The man suddenly turned and fled from the room! She rushed to the door to lock herself in her bedroom and silently he escaped form her home.
"He doesn't make a sound," she says of the man, who has mastered the art of being elusive.

Police continued their search yesterday along a water-runoff canal in a detailed hunt for evidence they hope will lead to the attacker.
The canal, a weed-filled ditch that encircles a large residential zone near Warden and Finch Aves., is a possible route to reach many of the homes where he has struck.
At least two of the homes he has entered back on to the canal. Others are just a short walk away.
Meanwhile, police hope that by residents turning on all possible external lights, the predator - who uses the cover of darkness - will have no place to hide.
Police Superintendent James Bamford announced the Light The Night program, urging residents to leave outside lights on in an effort to thwart the rapist's shadowy attacks.
"If we light the whole area up, the predator will have more trouble moving around and it will be harder for him to hide," Bamford said yesterday.
"And the better we light the place up , the better opportunity we'll have to get a better description."
According to police sources, the sexual predator rarely speaks. In all his attacks, he's only uttered about two words - and that happened during only one of his 12 break-ins since June 2.
It wasn't enough for police to properly ascertain any discernible accent.
Since the assailant, who has so far been connected to eight sexual assaults, strikes between 12:30 a.m. and 6:20 a.m., police believe he may live with someone - a girlfriend, wife or family member - who works overnight.

If that's the case, he could easily slip out and not be missed once his partner went to work, sources say. But it's only a theory, and until they catch him, police are relying on educated guesses based on years of experience.

The victim can't describe his face or his smell. "He is deliberate. He carefully masks his identity."

But she can't forget the anger of his touch. "He's angry. Angry at somebody for something."

To this day, she and police are uncertain why her assailant fled. Maybe it was because he feared being identified during the fierce struggle, or perhaps he tired of her resistance. But as far as this victim is concerned, God answered her prayers in her moment of greatest need.

'He has stolen my sense of security in my home'

She also wonders how her attacker knew she was alone. He struck shortly after her adult children went out for the night. She's convinced he had been staking out her house.
Although the attack left her sore and with bruises all over her body, what hurts most is what the predator has taken away from her.
"He has gone in, stolen my sense of security in my home...I felt safe in my house." She says it's a challenge to stay there, although a number of her adult children live with her.
Now she jolts awake at 3 a.m. to double-check that her windows are locked, and she repeatedly makes sure her doors are locked. She is looking to sell her long-time home to try and get away from the memories and sense of violation.

She is uncertain how he crept into her home. There was no forced entry. "I thought all the window were locked. But we're not exactly sure. We have no air-conditioning and it was a very, very hot night.
"I think people should be allowed to have a window open on a hot summer night."
Although the man frightened her senseless, incredibly she says that as a mother, she feels sorry for her twisted attacker. "This is somebody's son." As a religious woman, she prays for him, just as she prays he will be apprehended before he hurts anyone else.
"I just want to know what happened to him that promoted this self-destructive behavior.
"I think about it all the time. Why? Why? Why?
end of article

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I wonder if we were to look at how many cases like this are reported each year, how many we would find. No point of entry, the feeling of pure evil, no face, wearing a hooded robe with no face, sounds like the old hag syndrome or something supernatural. I would like to thank an anonymous reader for sending me this article to share with you all. There is more to this story and will be adding more to my ebook and to my blog regarding some very eerie incidents that are reported that are more than what they seem to be.