Saturday, October 31, 2009
The girl, 17, said the suspect threatened to rape her again.
YOUNGSTOWN — Police are investigating two reported sexual assaults — one involving a 17-year-old girl getting off the school bus on the South Side.
Officers were sent to the area of Indianola Avenue and Cooper Street to meet with the girl and a concerned bus driver. The bus driver was flagged down by the shaking and crying of a disoriented 17-year-old East High School girl at 4:30 p.m. Thursday somewhere near Indianola.
According to police, the girl was dropped off at her usual bus stop at the corner of Myrtle Avenue and Franklin Street. She was approached by a man driving a white Honda Prelude with a cracked windshield shortly after being dropped off.
The girl told police the man showed her a knife, then began dragging her toward the white car. She told police the man told her he knew where she lived, who she is and that she had better get in the car.
The girl told police the man drove her to an abandoned brown house in the area of South and Dewey avenues. Reports say she was forced inside the house, where the man stripped her of her clothes and raped her.
The man, reports say, told the girl to walk home after the assault, but warned her not to call police or the same thing would happen again.
The girl was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center, where an examination was conducted. Police have collected the results of the exam and are looking for the man.
Police in Youngstown and Struthers are also investigating the kidnapping and attempted rape of a 30-year-old Struthers woman.
According to police, the woman left a bar on Midlothian Boulevard on the South Side early Thursday with two men who said they would take her to a store at Midlothian and Shirley Road to buy cigarettes. She said the store was closed, so the trio went to another store at Wilson Avenue and Center Street on the East Side.
Police say the men took the woman to a grassy area somewhere near the Center Street bridge and tried to remove her clothes.
According to police reports, the men were scared off by a passing police car. The woman went home and called police a few hours after the incident took place.
jgoodwin@vindy.com