Caprica Thompson is still terrified to sleep at night. She was getting ready for work Monday when she saw a shadow at her back window on Roy Street.
"At first I’m like, just brush it off, and then I look again and the shadow was actually moving," Thompson said.
She ran to the window, smashed the glass with her fist, and scared the man off. It was a man she told police she recognized, as her neighbor.
On Thursday, police arrested Travis Cousar, 34, and charged him with voyeurism. A registered sex offender, Cousar is well-known to police, who suspected him in 30 peeping cases dating to 2009. Prosecutors could only prove a few of them in court.
According to court records, Cousar served two years in prison on one peeping conviction, and 18 month on another.
"He’s on our radar whenever he gets out of prison," said Rock Hill Police spokesman Mark Bollinger. "It's sad, but we say ‘You know, Travis is out of prison,' whenever something happens, and sure enough, it's him."
Channel 9 was the only TV station at Cousar's bond hearing Friday morning. His bond was set at $100,000. As high as that bond is, Thompson’s mother Melissa Boyer was furious that he could be set free again.
"He was given a bond. For what? So he can terrorize even more people?" Boyer said.
Thompson said she constantly lives in fear, keeps her children in the room with her, and is afraid to change clothes at home.
"I’m literally getting dressed in my shower. After I take a shower I’m literally reaching for my clothes with the shower curtain closed," she said.
Cousar's mother said in court that she believes her son is innocent, but someone who looks like him has been peeping in homes around the city.
At the time of his arrest Cousar was out on bond on a gun charge and an assault and battery charge.
Three years ago after another peeping arrest Cousar was ordered to stay at least a mile from victims. There were so many, the crime analyst plotted them on a map and discovered that Cousar couldn’t live anywhere in rock hill, with violating that order.
He stayed in Chester County for a year, until that judge's order expired.
Thompson told Channel 9 that she noticed her porch light missing, about two weeks before the peeping incident. According to police that's an "M.O." that Cousar has often used in the past, removing the light bulb from an outside light fixture, before peeping.
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