Runner reports rape by stranger at CdA”s Tubbs Hill

A 22-year-old Coeur d’Alene woman reported to police Monday that she was raped by a stranger who assaulted her while she was jogging at Tubbs Hill on March 30.

The woman was running alone along the east side of the natural park, near the 11th Street entrance parking lot, about 7 p.m. that Wednesday when a man approached her from behind and grabbed her in a bear hug, she told police.

She told police that she didn’t hear her attacker approach because she was listening to music on headphones. In a calm voice, the man ordered her not to scream and, despite her attempts to free herself, he overpowered her and dragged her into the woods along the base of Tubbs Hill, according to Monday’s police report.

Police call the incident a “cold” report because it was reported nearly four weeks after the alleged attack occurred, and as result they have little or no physical evidence.

The woman told police that she didn’t report the crime right away because she was ashamed and only recently told her boyfriend and parents.

Coeur d’Alene police Sgt. Christie Wood said detectives still need to investigate the case. She said it’s important for victims to report rapes immediately to preserve evidence and get medical and support services right away.

The Coeur d’Alene Police Department and other agencies in Kootenai County are still seeking a serial rapist believed to be responsible for seven rapes or attempted rapes between April and November of 2003.

Last year, Coeur d’Alene police had several reports of rapes or attempted rapes by strangers that proved to be false. Police wound up prosecuting the women who filed the false reports.

Dot Clark, the sexual assault program manager for the Coeur d’Alene Women’s Center, said such false reports sometimes have a chilling effect on other victims.

“About 2 percent of any crime reports are false reports,” she said. “It’s devastating if it makes it difficult for those people who really are victims to seek out help. They question whether they’ll be believed … .

“Rape is still the most underreported crime.”

It’s been 13 years since the last known stranger rape occurred on Tubbs Hill, Wood said. The rapist in that case, Joseph Dushkin, was caught and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He attacked a woman who was jogging in the early morning.

Clark said women should not jog or hike on Tubbs Hill alone, even in midday. At the very least, she said, they should carry a cell phone and pepper spray.

“Why risk it?” she said. “Women have to be on guard all the time. It’s unfortunate, but true.”

She also said that rape victims should seek medical attention immediately, before taking a shower, for their own health and so medical professionals can preserve DNA evidence with a rape kit.

The woman in the recent case did not give a good description of her attacker. After he finished assaulting her, he warned her to stay where she was until he was gone, or he would rape her again, she told police, so she continued to look at the ground and wept.

She then heard a car leave the Tubbs Hill parking lot, where earlier she had seen a green car parked. About five minutes later, she left, she told police.

She described her attacker as having a thin build, smelling like body odor, tobacco and alcohol. She told police that he wore a long-sleeved black T-shirt and white shoes and that he had rough hands.