N.j. Cops Hunt Rapist Pretending To Be A Cop, `Scott' Preyed On Hookers, Ditched Them In Woods - Philly.com

N.j. Cops Hunt Rapist Pretending To Be A Cop, `Scott' Preyed On Hookers, Ditched Them In Woods - Philly.com:

'via Blog this'

(I wonder if they ever found him)

Few besides local fishermen and stealthy underage drinkers have driven Burlington County's Rancocas Avenue all the way west, where it becomes a rugged dirt trail, surrounded by the 120 acres of ancient oak trees that comprise Rancocas State Park.

But a man in a car with Pennsylvania tags who introduces himself to his victims as ``Scott'' knows the secluded area well enough to have staged five of his seven known sexual assaults there, said New Jersey State Police, who yesterday released a sketch of the rapist.

``I never knew about this park until I lived here. He obviously knows it pretty well,'' said Kim Applegate, a young mother living in Hainesport who says she believes she has seen ``Scott'' in the neighborhood. ``Who's to say he won't see me walking down the street and think, I think I'll take her?''

The rapist sometimes showed a badge, wore an official-looking uniform and told victims he was a cop.

He targeted mostly Camden women, all from areas known for prostitution, usually late at night or early in the morning, police said. Some got in his white Pontiac willingly, police said. Some were forced in at gunpoint.

Then the power locks would click. Threatening to kill them if they didn't obey, he drove to secluded parks in New Jersey, especially favoring Rancocas State Park. On the ground by the water, he raped them and drove away.

Police said ``Scott'' may be responsible for more than just seven rapes. Investigators think more victims have yet to come forward.

On a frigid, rainy Sunday in March at about 7 a.m., a shivering 19-year-old - Scott's latest victim - knocked on 50-year Hainesport resident Bill Pate's door.

Sobbing uncontrollably, the petite woman told Pate that ``Scott'' had approached her in his Grand Am at the Maple Shade Kmart at 5 a.m. and offered her a ride back to the motel she shared with her boyfriend and baby.

``You know why I was out there,'' Pate remembers the woman telling her boyfriend on the phone.

``She kept saying, `We don't have the room rent, I needed to make the room rent,' '' said Pate. ``I think she had just `made her rent' and wanted a ride home.''

But as he had done at least four other times before since 1996, Scott instead drove the woman to Rancocas State Park, which has no gate, although it is officially closed from dusk till dawn.

There, he raped and sodomized her, then left her in the dirt, taking her jacket, police said.

A week or two later, Deborah James remembers a ``rough-looking'' woman in her 30s ringing the doorbell of her nearby log cabin at about 10:45 p.m.

``She said she had been raped, and she kept looking behind her like she was afraid he was still there, so I called the police.''

Scott had picked her up in Camden before driving her out to Hainesport to rape her, police said.

The disturbing pattern began more than two years ago, in March 1996. It happened again that April, and then again in March 1997. All three women were from Camden, all were raped in Rancocas State Park.

``At that point we started investigating this as a possible serial rapist,'' said Sgt. Jack Smith, spokesman for the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office.

According to Smith, because police had no suspect and none of the victims knew the rapist, it was difficult to conclude that the rapes were related.

``It's not unusual for it to take so many cases, because police see each incident as a separate case and it takes them awhile to piece it together,'' said Gloria Gay, spokeswoman for the Women's Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

But police knew they had a pattern when the rapes began repeating, increasing in frequency and intensity of violence, Smith said. The most recent rapes all have been at gunpoint, said Smith.

In January and March of this year, Scott abducted three more women and took them to the same park.

Then, in April and June, he changed the location of his attacks. In April, he drove his victim to Sandy Island Lake in Elk Township, N.J. In June, he chose Ironside Park near Olympia Lake in Willingboro.

Police departments in all areas, as well as in Camden County, where Scott picked up at least six of his victims, are now involved in what cops call a ``high priority'' investigation.

``We are very concerned as to the frequency and demonstration of violence,'' Smith said. ``We believe there are victims that have not come forward yet.''