ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, May 10, 1996 TAG: 9605100070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Above
A ROANOKE MAN is suspected of making threatening or obscene calls to scores of girls .
The telephone rang at 10:21 the night of April 17. The male caller asked for the 14-year-old girl by name.
"You are going to be raped," he told her, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in Roanoke Circuit Court.
As the man spoke, police monitored the call electronically. And they knew their 2 1/2-year investigation finally would lead to an arrest.
Wednesday night, Roanoke County police charged 42-year-old Michael Andrew Obremski of Roanoke with one count of making a threatening telephone call. Roanoke County Detective Jeff Herrick, who has been on the case since 1993, says police suspect Obremski has made threatening calls to scores of girls in Roanoke, Roanoke County and Botetourt County.
The charge is a Class 1 misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.
Obremski is free on bond. He declined to comment Thursday when reached at the motel where he has been living.
The investigation began in December 1993, when at least eight girls in Roanoke County received obscene or threatening phone calls in one week. The girls ranged in age from 8 to 18. The male caller always asked for them by name.
Herrick traced the calls to one location, which was not disclosed, but then the calls stopped.
Within a few months they began again, he said Thursday. Then young girls in Roanoke started getting similar phone calls. Roanoke Youth Detective Tim Spence joined the investigation in February 1994. To date, the city has logged about 30 complaints.
Herrick said he suspects the caller chose his victims by perusing the Neighbors section of The Roanoke Times. The girls' names often were included in sports results, award ceremonies and school listings. Their last names were unique and could easily be found in the telephone book, Herrick said.
Beginning early in April, detectives focused their attention on a pay phone near the Plaza Court Motel on Williamson Road Northwest, where Obremski lives.
Herrick said in his search warrant affidavit that police had the pay phone under surveillance and saw Obremski use it at the same time the threatening call was made to the 14-year-old girl.
That led to a search of Obremski's motel room Wednesday afternoon. Herrick and Spence confiscated items including numerous sections of The Roanoke Times, a pair of girl's panties, videotapes and various letters and documents, according to the affidavit.
Obremski was also charged with possession of marijuana as a result of the search.
Herrick said additional charges are likely. Roanoke Lt. William Beason said city detectives will review the evidence from the search to see if any can be linked to offenses in the city.
Obremski was not unknown to Roanoke police. In 1989, he was convicted of placing an obscene phone call to a teen-age girl, according to the affidavit.
Obremski also was convicted in Memphis, Tenn., of public lewdness and exposure for an incident involving a 13-year-old girl in 1979. Four years later, he was charged with attempted aggravated kidnapping. He pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of malicious mischief, according to the affidavit.
Police are asking that anyone who has received similar phone calls contact Herrick at 561-8099 or the Roanoke City Youth Bureau at 981-2575.
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