No suspects in sexual assault, attempted drowning

By Megan Matteucci

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Clayton County woman who was sexually assaulted and escaped being drowned in her bathtub by her attacker said she believes she was a victim of a man wanted in a series of sexual assaults.

Clayton County Police spokesman Kevin Hughes said they have no suspect in the attack.

The woman said she awoke last week and found a masked man in her Ellenwood bedroom.

He sexually assaulted her, punched her in the head, tied her up and then tried to drown her in the bathtub, she told police.

When he left her alone for a minute, she was able to wiggle out of restraints binding her feet and shut the door, locking herself in the bathroom, she said.

“People have those survival instincts. I just stayed calm and did as he asked,” she said Thursday.

The woman said she told her attacker about her children, hoping he might have babies at home.

“I felt he found some compassion in his heart somewhere and decided not to drown me and threw me in the bathroom,” she said. “He gave me opportunity to jump up and shut the door.”

The attacker eventually fled the home, stealing some of the woman’s jewelry, according to a police report.

The woman said she doesn’t know how the attacker got into her house. Police said there were no signs of forced entry.

During the attack, the suspect told the woman he was “doing a job” for his sister because the victim had been messing around with the sister’s husband, according to the report.

“I’m not having an affair and don’t know this man at all,” the victim said Thursday. “I told the criminal I had no idea what he was talking about.”

The suspect is described as a tall, slender black male with a light complexion and a raspy voice. He was wearing a black ski mask.

Detectives do not believe the attack is connected to a string of sexual assaults in Clayton, Hughes said. Police will not say why they do not think the attacks are linked, saying it's an ongoing investigation.

Police said a man wanted for seven sexual assaults in Clayton, including two rapes, also wore a ski mask during his attacks. Those attacks occurred from December to August in Jonesboro, Morrow, and the Clayton sections of College Park and Stockbridge.

In each of those attacks, women woke to find the masked man in their bedroom with a gun, but there were no signs of forced entry, police said.

The victim of the Ellenwood assault said her attack was similiar to the others because she awoke to find a masked man standing over her bed. He also carried a gun, she said.