A Clayton County woman who had been sexually assaulted in a home invasion escaped a possible drowning by locking herself in her bathroom, she told police.
She wiggled out of restraints binding her feet and broke free from the man who had tied her up, fondled and assaulted her, she told police.
Unable to get to the woman, the attacker rummaged through the Ellenwood home and then fled, according to a Clayton County Police report.
Police said the attack does not appear to be connected to a string of sexual assaults at Clayton apartment complexes that have been linked, according to police spokeswoman Officer India Smith.
The Ellenwood woman told police she awoke early Friday and felt someone leaning on her, according a police report. She assumed it was her husband, who was expected home late that night.
She tried to push the man away and he put a gun to her head. He threatened to shoot her if she moved, according to a police report.
The suspect then struck her on the head with the gun and said he was “doing a job” for his sister because the victim had been messing around with the sister’s husband, according to the report. The suspect, who knew where she worked, told the woman he had been watching her for months and was ready to rape her.
He groped her breasts and pulled her clothes off, she told police.
When the woman struggled, the suspect stuck a gun between her legs and then struck her in the head several more times with the gun.
That’s when the victim pretended she was knocked out, the report states. She said she tried to flee when the suspect momentarily walked away to make a phone call.
But he saw her and struck her again. He stuffed a pillow case in her mouth, covered her head and bound her hands and feet, the report states.
Every time she looked at the suspect, he struck her on the head with the gun, she told police.
The suspect said he was going to drown her and then went to fill up the bathtub.
While the tub was filling, the suspect rummaged through the woman’s jewelry. But the jewelry wasn’t expensive enough for his taste and he became enraged, the woman said.
That’s when he climbed on top of her and sliced her face with a razor, the report states.
He then carried her into bathroom. When he walked back into the bedroom, she was able to free her feet and lock the bathroom door, the woman told police.
The woman said the suspect was in her Hershey Lane home for about an hour before leaving.
Around 2 a.m., the woman’s husband came home and found his wife in the bathroom, he told officers. The woman’s face was bleeding and her eye was swollen, police said.
Paramedics transported the woman to the hospital, where she was listed in stable condition, police said.
Detectives said they found no sign of forced entry, but the suspect had cut the phone lines.
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.
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.
