April 24, 2008

Boston police are investigating whether a lunatic is preying on the elderly after the attempted rape of an 88-year-old woman in her Hyde Park apartment - a stone’s throw from a precinct station and just days after an 86-year-old man was assaulted in the same neighborhood.

“What kind of creature would attack an 88-year-old woman?” said neighbor Yahya Kareem, 63, of the brazen early-morning assault. “This is a sick thing.”

At about 4 a.m. yesterday, a suspect “aggressively” beat and attempted to rape an 88-year-old woman in the Boston Housing Authority’s Malone Apartments in Hyde Park, a 100-person complex for the elderly and disabled.

“She attempted to fight,” said BPD Superintendent Bruce Holloway, later adding, “It’s a horrible case.”

With no signs of forced entry, police are investigating how the man got into the apartment. After the beating, the stricken woman managed to call her son, who dialed 911 at about 5 a.m., police said.

The woman remains in stable condition at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Although she is severely traumatized and somewhat disoriented, detectives were able to interview her yesterday, said BPD spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll.
“She has some serious facial injuries,” Holloway said.

Police are investigating whether the attacker, described by the victim as a black man with a slight build and dressed all in black, is the same suspect who struck an 86-year-old man with a blunt object on Braeburn Road in Hyde Park Sunday before reaching into his pockets and stealing his cash, Holloway said.
Nothing, however, was stolen from the woman’s apartment, police said.

Calling the housing complex a “very active crime scene,” Holloway said detectives are scouring nearby Cleary Square, a commercial area, in hopes of finding surveillance footage of the suspect.

Boston Housing Authority spokeswoman Lydia Agrow said residents of the complex are expected to meet with the city’s Elderly Commission to discuss strengthening the area Crime Watch on Monday and that police are stepping up patrols in the area.

But that was little reassurance for the victim’s shaken neighbors yesterday.

Alberta Muriel, 56, said she asked for more lighting amid what she called a “changing” and more dangerous neighborhood.

“It’s not safe to live here anymore,” said Muriel, who installed an extra bolt on her second-floor apartment door in defiance of BHA rules.

Neighbors described the victim as a “motherly” little woman who would tend to her patch of flowers.

“The only time you’d see her is if she was out on a nice day like today planting her flowers,” Kareem said.

The victim used to volunteer for a community-based program in Roslindale created after the Blizzard of 1978 to help handicapped individuals.

Anyone with information is urged to call District E-18 detectives at 617-343-5607 or Sexual Assault detectives at 617-343-4400.