![]() But maybe not as thorough as he imagined. You know, once DNA came on the scene, then he would, like, try to make them- make them go take a shower so that he could get rid of the evidence. But what- what else did they say about him?ĭennis Ferrier: He made some of them take showers. Keith Morrison: You said they never saw his face so they couldn't describe a face. Like a ghost, the rapist left behind no trace that could readily identify him.ĭennis Ferrier: They immediately knew they had a real smart guy, and that always bothers them.Īs the number of attacks grew, the rapist seemed to redouble his efforts to hide his identity. Where the victims lived in wooded lots or where there were houses not really one on top of another.Īfter each incident, the police searched the crime scene meticulously, but there were no telltale clothing fibers, no hairs, only the DNA that had no face. Roger Moore: A number of the incidents occurred during rainy nights. Keith Morrison: He became known as the Wooded Rapist to the public. He operated at night, he seemed to appear from the woods, then vanish back into them. Only the ages of his victims varied much, his methods rarely did. if you don't keep quiet and do this, I'll go upstairs and, kill your sleeping husband or other family members." There was always the threat. And- said, "I'll kill you if you don't do this. Big athletic guy, powerful build, physically imposing, you know, ski mask. In the last years of the 20th century, an unknown rapist invaded the very places the women of Nashville had once felt most secure: their own homes.ĭennis Ferrier: He had a knife or a gun. Gracious, lovely, but something else now, too. They were still gracious -the tree-studded lawns around Nashville, Tenn. Zea Miller: You don't think you're gonna live. Another of Nashville's green, wooded suburbs. And said, "Oh, my god." I went up to the hostess of the party and said, "I have to go." He said, "Why?" I said because I'm gonna- I'm gonna hit somebody and I have to go home now.Īnd then it was November 1998. And a woman said "Oh, well, was it good for you?" And I stood there and looked at her. Pat Young: One of the worst remarks that got made to me was at a Christmas party. And Pat began to realize that she was, in many ways, alone. You'd tell yourself that you're being ridiculous. What if he's here? What if someone's here? What if someone's between me and the house? I did that for a long, long time. But I'd get in the car and now I've got to get out of the car and go in the house. Even though there was an alarm on where I went after I left my house. I would check with a handgun, every door, every room, under every bed and every closet. Pat Young: I would sit in a house- every door was locked. But mostly, she left behind her sense of personal safety. And she left her home in that leafy neighborhood - though there were other reasons, too. And so the evidence, useful though it was, sat filed away, waiting for a suspect against which it could be compared.Īnd years passed by in which this horrible but apparently solitary crime went on doing its' corrosive work in the life of lawyer Pat Young. But there was no match - nothing in the file, at least. We had what it took to identify the person.Īnd of course, had the DNA found its match in some database somewhere back then, back in 1994, what followed might never have happened. Roger Moore: We knew this was a person that needed to be found. Nashville DA Roger Moore heard about the vicious attacker, the violence of his assault- and was alarmed. But I wonder if that was a car wreck or what." He told me later, "That looked a lot like Pat except- look- looked a lot like Pat's hair. Pat Young: My receptionist didn't recognize me, I was so swollen and beaten. And Pat, the tough, independent lawyer, got up the next day and went to work. They found that bit of skin from the rapist's hand. ![]() Then the police came, the questions began, the evidence search. ![]() Pat Young risked her life, and bit the man.Įventually, he fled, into the woods behind her house. A sentiment she was going to share with other women yet to come. But at that very moment, Pat Young made a decision: She would not be - refused to be - a passive victim. Courageous? The man had a gun on her, could have killed her any second.
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