'No clues’ in rape case

Press, 14 November 1981, Page 6

'No clues’ in rape case

NZPA staff correspondent Washington

The Florida police said yesterday that they were no nearer making an arrest in the case of a 20-year-old Auckland woman hitch-hiker who was raped and brutally battered by a motorist who gave her a lift on Tuesday. Police throughout . the United States have been asked to look out for a black man, in his 30s, who was driving a white Oldsmobile car. But apart from the woman's suggestion that she thought the man said his

name was “James” and that the car had a broken rear window, they have no clues. “It’s a tough case and we don’t have a lot to go on,” said Mr Dick Simpson, a spokesman for the Sheriffs Office in Leon County. ■ The woman's parents were expected to arrive in the United States last evening and fly to Tallahassee, where she is in "fair, but satisfactory” condition in hospital. The case has shocked the 82,000 people of Tallahassee, the Florida state capital, which has been having a wave of murders, rapes, and

other violent crimes over the last three months. “There has been an incredible outpouring of sympathy and offers of help," Mr Simpson said. The hospital reported receiving a steady flow of flowers, cards, telegrams, and messages of sympathy yesterday. Mr Simpson said the Sheriff's Office had been inundated with calls, many with offers of accommodation. transportation, and other help for the woman’s parents. A local church has estab-

•lished the “New Zealand Girl Trust Fund" at a state bank. The parents will be offered money from it to help pay their air fares if they need assistance, and the balance will go towards paying the heavy medical and hospital bills being incurred. Mr Simpson yesterday described the case as a tragic demonstration of the dangers of hitch-hiking in America. “We discourage people from doing it,” he said. “It may be okay in New Zealand, I don’t know, but it's not a safe way to travel in this country.”