STANTON : Police Seek Help Finding Assailant

Authorities were seeking the public’s help in identifying a would-be rapist who repeatedly stabbed a 32-year-old woman in her apartment on Tuesday evening when she spurned his sexual advances, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman said.

“We don’t know who he is,� Lt. Richard J. Olson said Wednesday. “We haven’t found any (witnesses) yet. Chances are, somebody was looking to burglarize the place.�

The woman, whose name was being withheld, was asleep in the bedroom of her Knott Avenue apartment at 6:40 p.m. when she heard a knock at the door, Olson said. She ignored the knock and fell back asleep.

“The next thing she knows, the guy is in her bedroom,� Olson said, adding that the woman’s front door was not locked.

The man, whom she apparently did not know, made sexual advances on the woman, Olson said. As she tried to fight him off, he pulled out a knife and stabbed her repeatedly, then fled.

The woman, who was able to dial 911 and ask for help, was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where she was listed in critical condition, hospital spokeswoman Fran Tardiff said.

On Wednesday, investigators combed her apartment and the building looking for fingerprints and interviewing neighbors.

Detectives were able to briefly talk to the woman on Wednesday and asked the public’s help in locating a suspect, described as a young man, about 5 feet, 5 inches tall, about 140 pounds, with a butch haircut. He was wearing a white shirt and a denim jacket.