Police searching for man in 'nightmare' Taylorsville rape


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TAYLORSVILLE — Unified police are asking for the public's help to find a man suspected of physically and sexually assaulting a woman in what investigators believed was a very rare case of a "stranger rape."

Sometime between 11:30 p.m. on Sept. 26 and 1:45 a.m. on Sept. 27, a 33-year-old Taylorsville woman left her house to take a stroll around the area, Unified Police Lt. Lex Bell said Wednesday.

As she walked through a grassy area in the Valley Regional Softball Complex, along 2700 West and somewhere between 4700 South and 5300 South, she was approached by a man who asked her for a cigarette.

"She hesitates, gets kind of a weird feeling about it. So she reaches into her purse to grab a weapon, something to try and defend herself with because she got kind of a bad feeling about him," Bell said.

Without warning, the woman fell backwards and struck her head against a hard surface, possibly a cement base that surrounded the trees in the park, he said. The woman did not know if she was pushed or tripped as she tried to back up.

Bell said the woman had a "significant gash" on the back of her head when doctors later treated her, confirming her injury. The woman was only semi-conscious at that point.

"When she comes to a little bit, he's on top of her," Bell said. "She starts fighting him off, says something that seems to infuriate him. I don't know what her words were exactly, but she had the wit about her to say something derogatory to him which enraged him and he began to physically assault her as well as sexually assault her."

Bell described the woman as a "tough young lady" who fought back. But she described the attacker as stocky and strong.

When the man eventually left, the woman — who had "significant" injuries and her clothes were partially on — "crawls out to the edge of the road" and attempted to flag a vehicle down for help, he said.

But no one stopped. Bell said the woman described the situation as a "nightmare." The woman crawled back to a nearby tree and sat under it. She worked up enough courage and strength to crawl back out to the road again and this time successfully flagged down an officer. The woman did not have a cellphone.

The attacker is described a white man in his 20s or 30s with a round face, about 5 feet 8 inches tall with a "scruffy" face, "very coarse" facial hair, and a full sleeve of tattoos on his left arm. The man also had an accent, the woman said. It wasn't a foreign accent but one that made her believe he may not be from Utah.

He was last seen wearing blue/gray baggy shorts and white tennis shoes.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Unified Police Department's Special Victims Unit at 385-468-9837.

Contributing: Shara Park, Mike Anderson, Nicole Vowell

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