Spring Break
Police release sketch, description of indecent exposure suspect
Katie Wedell, Special Projects Editor
Issue date: 1/12/07 Section: Front Page
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According to the bulletin and police reports, around 10 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 7, an 18-year-old female Miami student was returning to her residence in Collins Hall when a car drove near her on Fischer Drive and the male driver asked for directions to U.S. Route 27.
When she approached the car she reported that she noticed the male was exposing himself and masturbating.
She immediately backed away from the car and called Oxford police who alerted the Miami University Police Department (MUPD).
"We put out a description and we searched the area almost immediately," said Sgt. Regina Rapp of MUPD who participated in the search. "We were unable to find the vehicle."
The female victim described the vehicle as a red, small to medium four-door car with no front license plate, and said she last saw it traveling west on High Street north of Cook Field.
The driver is described as a white male in his late 30s or early 40s with brown hair and a scraggly beard and mustache. He had two earrings in his left ear and was wearing a tan sweater.
These descriptions are similar to those given by another victim in a report filed Dec. 7 with Oxford police. In that incident, which occurred on West Walnut Street, the victim described the driver as a white male in his late 40s or early 50s with graying brown hair, sparse gray facial hair, light eyes and wearing a tan jacket. That individual reportedly made indecent gestures and suggestions while asking for directions from a dirty red Ford Taurus.
Oxford police Sgt. Jim Squance said the descriptions of the two incidents seemed to match, but Miami police are not definitively connecting the crimes.
"There are some similarities but the police are not making that connection," said Richard Little, director of communications for Miami University.
Little said the reason the university institutional response team waited four days to put out the bulletin was because they were waiting for the creation of the computer generated sketch, which the victim helped create Thursday.
Anyone with possible information on this incident should contact Miami police at (513) 529-2222.
