Andrew Raven
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (June 03/05) - Police are hunting for a suspect in a series of attacks that have terrorized residents of a quiet Frame Lake neighbourhood and left a 19-year-old woman fearing for her life.

Police believe a single suspect is behind four seemingly random assaults during the last month that left the woman and her roommate with cuts to their backs and chests.

This sketch of a suspect in four Frame Lake attacks was posted in the Beck Court area by police.

"It was really scary," said the victim, who was attacked twice during a three-week period.

"If I was smaller, I would probably be lying at the bottom of a ditch somewhere."

The first attack happened outside her Beck Court apartment May 9, when the woman was approached from behind and punched in the face. She fought off her attacker and ran across the parking lot into her apartment building.

Nearly two weeks later, the woman's roommate was grabbed while she waited outside the building. The attacker pinned her against a pane of glass and sliced her back several times with an unknown object before she escaped.

Her injuries were not life threatening, but her roommate said she was deeply traumatized.

The 19-year-old woman was attacked again May 26, when she went to retrieve a CD from her truck, parked just metres from the building. The same attacker grabbed her from behind and put his hand up her shirt.

He scratched her across the chest, before she kicked him in the groin and fled up a flight of stairs, back into her building.

"It seems like he is teasing people," said the woman. "If he wanted to cut my throat that night, he could have."

The man uttered her name during the final attack.

"That really freaked me out," she said. "Is there somebody out there watching me?"

The woman got a clear look at her attacker, who she described as aboriginal, around 5'10" and about 190 pounds. She estimated he was in his 30s.

"He was a big, scary looking guy," she said.

Police said the suspect's face is scarred by acne and he has short black hair, bushy eyebrows, a prominent lower lip and one earring. He was last seen wearing a black track jacket and dark jeans.

Police have stepped up patrols in the area around the attacks.

"The Yellowknife detachment has given this case its highest priority," said Const. Damon Werrell.

On Thursday RCMP issued a public appeal for information and have posted composite drawings of the suspect in the Beck Court area.

Several suspects

Werrell said police have several suspects, though an arrest was not imminent. The 19-year-old victim said investigators examined suspects with a history of assaults and former convicts living in the area.

While Werrell declined to comment on the motivation behind the attacks, the 19-year-old victim said it was probably sexual in nature.

"I got the feeling he wanted to do more," she said.

She said the assaults were becoming more violent and worried the suspect would not stop.

"I can't go outside alone at night any more," she said. "The police told me to keep my curtains drawn. It really makes me worry."

A teenaged boy was attacked in the Woolgar Avenue area and cut along the side of his face, the woman said. She suspected the same man was responsible.

Police were unable to confirm if the incidents were connected.