Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 5, 1991 TAG: 9104050716
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/4 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MANTEO, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
The man was being held today in connection with the videotaped assault, the rape of a 12-year-old girl and the assault at gunpoint of a woman, said Southern Shores Police Chief Danny Beasley.
A West Virginia schoolteacher vacationing in Kill Devil Hills was videotaping the North Carolina coast Tuesday afternoon when she captured what police say was a sexual assault on the beach.
Though the videotape helped authorities connect the three crimes, they still had no way of identifying the face they had on tape until the alleged assailant provided the final clue.
Early Thursday, a man called the Currituck County Sheriff's Department to say his gun had been stolen. The man was taken into custody soon after a deputy, who had seen a still picture taken from the videotape, arrived at his Walnut Island mobile home to answer his complaint, Beasley said.
"When the sheriff's deputy went to his house to take a report, from the description we had - things just started to come together," the chief said.
The schoolteacher, staying at a Kill Devil Hills motel, was taping the Outer Banks to show her students when she returned home. Police declined to identify the teacher.
A worker at the motel noticed her taping and also observed what he thought was a sexual assault on the beach. Kill Devil Hills police Lt. W.N. Walker said the worker had told the teacher to tape the apparent assault, and then he sent someone to call police.
In the videotaped incident, Walker said, a man approached a woman wearing a bikini as she lay on a blanket.
The man walked up to her and lay down beside her. He then put his hand over her mouth and threatened to kill her. After assaulting her, the man ran off, Walker said. The 33-year-old woman received minor cuts on her face and hands.
by CNB