18-year-old reports rape in Athens

By Rhonda Cook

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A young woman told Athens police she was raped early Sunday by a man she thought was a cab driver, according to reports.

The 18-year-old woman said she got into the car in downtown Athens around midnight Saturday. She reported that instead of taking her to the address she gave him, he drove around for about two hours before assaulting her. She said her attacker dropped her off at intersection of two relatively busy roadways just before 3 a.m., at Milledge Avenue and Baxter Street.

Police told the Athens Banner-Herald it was too soon to know if this attack was similar to one that happened exactly a year ago involving a man also believed to be driving a cab.

In both cases, the man is described as a Hispanic.

Neither of the women is being identified because The Atlanta Journal-Constitution does not name victims of sexual assault.

Last year, on Sept. 4, a 20-year-old University of Georgia student got into a dark SUV on South Milledge Avenue around 1:30 a.m. and asked to be driven home. Six hours later a deputy spotted her walking along a highway in Jackson County, partially clothed and wrapped in a blanket.

No one has been charged in either attack.

Capt. Clarence Holeman told the Athens newspaper it was too soon to link the case until investigators gather more information.

“It’s too premature,” he said. “As far as I know, that case [the 2009 attack] is still very active.”