TEARS OF RAGE

Chapter 13

Three factors defined the pattern.

One: The suspect only made his move against his victims, during a heavy downpour of rain.

This trademark was what had inspired the media to dub the suspect as

"The Rainy Day Rapist".

Two: The suspect appeared to target a certain type of woman.

Blonde. Athletic. Between the ages of eighteen and thirty.

Usually without children.

And the third identifying factor that connected each crime, based upon the victim's testimony, was how he would command them to perform sexual perversions while he videotaped the encounter.

Once the women complied with his demands, he would then explain to them that should they ever decide to involve the cops, he would use the videotape to refute any allegations that the encounter was not consensual; then he would come back, and kill them before the case was ever brought to trial.

The seven women found murdered over the course of three years had come forward, but there was no way to identify him.

As the investigation began to flounder after each report, none of the victims were willing to provide testimony against their assailant.

After the murders, profile composites were created.

Leads were located.

But there was nothing that law enforcement officials could do, to bring the culprit to justice.

For five years, following the first documented report of the attacks, the search for "The Rainy Day Rapist" went cold.

There were no more reports.

No more leads.

And no one could identify the man, based upon the sketched composites created by the initial victims.

Until the ordeal, involving Diane McPherson...

A twenty-six-year-old woman with honey blonde hair, and a body toned from years of track and field training.

According to the facts gathered from the police investigation, Eric Young-

Diane McPherson's fiancée - had walked in on Robert Baker, as he was in the middle of his ritual rape.

An altercation ensued, as he attempted to flee from the residence.

When the cops were called to the scene, Robert Baker was apprehended two blocks away from the victim's home; bleeding from a gunshot wound in his back.

Upon interrogation, Robert Baker claimed that he and Diane were involved in an affair, while her fiancée had been working overseas as a military contractor.

The media publicity gave more women the courage to come forward and share their ordeal, but no one was willing to trust the judicial system to protect them, if Robert Baker was released from confinement.

His story was plausible.

There was videotaped evidence, that displayed Robert Baker and Diane McPherson engaged in sexual activity, up until the point in which Eric Young entered the bedroom; and a heated exchange could be heard.

The video camera was knocked over during the scuffle, that occurred between Diane McPherson and Robert Baker, as she began screaming that it wasn't what it looked like; and, that Robert had forced her to have sex with him.

Within moments the sound of a brief scuffle, then a bark of gunfire, and glass breaking could be heard in the background.

No one bothered to notice the videocamera until investigators came to secure the scene.