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Suspected serial rapist jailed
Posted On: Sunday, Jan. 9 2011 11:08 PM
http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=48900
From wire and staff reports
EDNA — A state prison employee who records show has worked for a home health care agency is suspected of being a serial rapist accused of targeting older women in Texas, including Bell County, after he was caught fleeing an elderly woman’s home, authorities said Sunday.
Billy Joe Harris, 53, was taken into custody early Saturday morning after Edna police responded to a medical emergency alert from an elderly woman, the Texas Department of Public Safety said in a news release.
Bell County Sheriff Dan Smith confirmed the arrest Sunday in a brief statement. He is scheduled to hold a news conference sometime today to release further information.
DPS officials said police saw Harris running from the woman’s home and arrested him after a short pursuit. Harris is being held in the Jackson County jail on a burglary charge, the agency said.
A Jackson County jail worker referred comment to Edna police. Chief Clinton Wooldridge and DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange did not know if Harris had an attorney.
After the arrest, a DNA sample taken from the suspect linked him to five other assaults in Yoakum, Bell, Falls and Leon counties, DPS said.
Harris lives in the Houston suburb of Missouri City and works as a noncommissioned employee for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Rosharon, DPS said. The agency said records indicate Harris was employed by a home health care agency in Houston.
Authorities have been looking for the so-called “Twilight Rapist” since 2009, when they gave the suspect that name after what they believed were as many as 12 rapes, attempted rapes or burglaries in rural towns in central and southeast Texas. The women ranged in age from 65 to 91 and generally lived alone, authorities said.
A 90-year old woman was sexually assaulted in the Seaton area of Bell County on Sept. 11, 2009. A man broke into the home of an 86-year-old woman in Moody, about 20 miles from Temple, in February 2010.
One rape victim played piano at her church on Sundays. An 81-year-old woman scared off an intruder with a gun, firing several rounds. A 66-year-old woman was attacked twice, despite having moved across town following the first assault.
Authorities have said the attacks appeared to have been planned — phone lines were cut and porch lights were unscrewed outside some of the victims’ homes. One victim had more than $10,000 stolen.
Gov. Rick Perry created the Twilight Rapist Task Force in November 2009, 11 months after the first reported attack in Yoakum, a quiet town surrounded by wide-open ranches about 100 miles east of San Antonio. Saturday’s arrest was about 40 miles away in Edna, roughly 100 miles southwest of Houston
Posted On: Sunday, Jan. 9 2011 11:08 PM
http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=48900
From wire and staff reports
EDNA — A state prison employee who records show has worked for a home health care agency is suspected of being a serial rapist accused of targeting older women in Texas, including Bell County, after he was caught fleeing an elderly woman’s home, authorities said Sunday.
Billy Joe Harris, 53, was taken into custody early Saturday morning after Edna police responded to a medical emergency alert from an elderly woman, the Texas Department of Public Safety said in a news release.
Bell County Sheriff Dan Smith confirmed the arrest Sunday in a brief statement. He is scheduled to hold a news conference sometime today to release further information.
DPS officials said police saw Harris running from the woman’s home and arrested him after a short pursuit. Harris is being held in the Jackson County jail on a burglary charge, the agency said.
A Jackson County jail worker referred comment to Edna police. Chief Clinton Wooldridge and DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange did not know if Harris had an attorney.
After the arrest, a DNA sample taken from the suspect linked him to five other assaults in Yoakum, Bell, Falls and Leon counties, DPS said.
Harris lives in the Houston suburb of Missouri City and works as a noncommissioned employee for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Rosharon, DPS said. The agency said records indicate Harris was employed by a home health care agency in Houston.
Authorities have been looking for the so-called “Twilight Rapist” since 2009, when they gave the suspect that name after what they believed were as many as 12 rapes, attempted rapes or burglaries in rural towns in central and southeast Texas. The women ranged in age from 65 to 91 and generally lived alone, authorities said.
A 90-year old woman was sexually assaulted in the Seaton area of Bell County on Sept. 11, 2009. A man broke into the home of an 86-year-old woman in Moody, about 20 miles from Temple, in February 2010.
One rape victim played piano at her church on Sundays. An 81-year-old woman scared off an intruder with a gun, firing several rounds. A 66-year-old woman was attacked twice, despite having moved across town following the first assault.
Authorities have said the attacks appeared to have been planned — phone lines were cut and porch lights were unscrewed outside some of the victims’ homes. One victim had more than $10,000 stolen.
Gov. Rick Perry created the Twilight Rapist Task Force in November 2009, 11 months after the first reported attack in Yoakum, a quiet town surrounded by wide-open ranches about 100 miles east of San Antonio. Saturday’s arrest was about 40 miles away in Edna, roughly 100 miles southwest of Houston