Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 27, 1995 TAG: 9507270066
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Within 90 minutes, officers tracked down the 29-year-old man outside a McDonald's in downtown Logan. Harry Lee Thompson had the fries he had just purchased in his lap when he was arrested.
Thompson was stopped late Tuesday in the small Ohio town, about 45 minutes south of Columbus. Police check most out-of-state license plates, since the town is known, in part, for a hefty marijuana market, said Tony Byram, shift commander for the Logan police.
When Logan police found Thompson, he told them he was a photographer on assignment for a local college. Byram said police found photography equipment in Thompson's van.
Thompson apparently was living out of his van. He is awaiting extradition to Roanoke in the Hocking County, Ohio, jail, Byram said.
Roanoke police suspect Thompson in two separate Southwest Roanoke rapes, charging him with two counts of rape and one count of sodomy. Investigators have been searching for him since the two Roanoke women identified their assailant and the van he was driving earlier this month.
At about 3:30 a.m. July 10, a 31-year-old woman told police she was walking in the 500 block of Salem Avenue Southwest when a man driving a van asked if she needed a ride. The woman accepted.
The man drove to the 1900 block of Rorer Avenue, where he pulled into an alley and raped her, she said, then pulled her from the van by her hair and beat her.
The man drove off. The woman was treated at Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley after walking to the Roanoke Police Department to file a complaint.
The first incident occurred June 18. Between 3:30 and 4:30 a.m., police found a 31-year-old woman in the 2400 block of Patterson Avenue Southwest naked and crying. Police said the woman told them she was walking along the 1700 and 1800 block of Patterson Avenue Southwest when a man asked if she needed a ride. She accepted.
The man drove to the 2400 block of Patterson, where he parked between two vehicles, she said. Police said the man held the woman by her throat, threatened to kill her and raped her. He forced her from the van and raped her again outside the van, police said.
The man fled the area in his van. The woman was treated at Community Hospital.
by CNB