Another N.B. senior assaulted

Police not sure if

incidents are related

By jennifer kohlhepp

Staff Writer

An intruder tried to rape a 76-year-old woman in her North Brunswick home July 31, according to police.

The attacker, described as a "black or dark-skinned Hispanic male, wearing white pants and a dark blue long-sleeved shirt," forced entry through the front door of a 13th Street residence at 9:18 p.m. on July 31, according to police reports.

Police said the assailant threatened the woman and struck her with a closed fist in the kitchen area of her home.

Police said the victim was sitting in her kitchen when she heard the front metal screen door forced open.

The intruder yelled, "Give me some wine," before hitting the woman, according to police.

Police said the blow caused swelling to the woman’s face on her left cheek.

The assailant pulled the victim onto the couch and started to pull at her undergarments, according to police.

When the victim’s brother pulled up in his car to the front of her house, the attacker "panicked and fled through the front kitchen door," according to police reports.

The North Brunswick Township Rescue Squad responded to treat the victim, who was later transported to St. Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick.

Police said they did not retrieve fingerprints from the crime scene.

Although the attack took place near Remsen Avenue, where an 81-year-old woman was raped in her bedroom in June, police said investigators have yet to determine if the incidents are related.

Last month, an intruder cut a hole through a screen in an open window of a spare bedroom to crawl into the Remsen Avenue apartment to commit a rape, according to police.

The woman told police that her attacker, described only as a man with an accent, woke her from sleep when he entered the bedroom and told her to be quiet, according to police reports.

After assaulting the woman, the attacker stole $6 from her wallet and disconnected the phone, according to police reports.

Police matched fingerprints left by the rapist with those found on a kitchen window of a Cypress Avenue residence on July 18, after an elderly couple alerted them to a possible attempted break-in, according to North Brunswick Deputy Chief Stan Karbowski.

"All of these incidents are occurring within the same proximity," Karbowski said.

Karbowski said police have stepped up patrols in the District One area of town, running from Route 1, and up Georges Street and west towards the New Brunswick border.

Karbowski said that currently, there is no evidence leading police to believe these recent incidents are related to five similar attacks on women in New Brunswick since September, 2001.