$30K reward offered in assault case

Suspect torched clerk, robbed hotel

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Maybe he looked innocent enough — fairly clean-cut and harmless — when he asked to enter the Hampton Inn in Peachtree City so he could use the bathroom.
But ultimately the unidentified white man in his 20s was as dangerous as any other criminal, tying up the clerk, sexually assaulting her and then setting her on fire, police say. It will be remembered as one of the city’s most violent assaults in recent memory.
The suspect in the Hampton Inn incident is still at large and still unidentified as of press time Thursday afternoon. Officials hope a $30,000 reward on the table will encourage someone to come forward with information leading them to the suspect.
Police released a sketch of the unknown assailant Wednesday afternoon after the hotel clerk, a white woman in her 50s, assisted a sketch artist from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Police Chief James Murray also confirmed that some money was taken from the hotel office, but he declined to say how much or whether the incident was caught on video.
Murray also declined to speculate on a possible motive for the crime or whether it was planned. He did say, however, that the aerosol cans used by the assailant to torch the victim “were lying around the office.”
There are indications, however, that the victim did not know her attacker. Although she was able to help out the GBI’s sketch artist at the hospital, police have not released the name of the suspect, only a description of him.
The GBI’s crime scene unit also assisted Peachtree City Police by processing the water-soaked scene, which was drenched thanks to the hotel’s fire suppression sprinkler system, police said. The sprinklers were set off by the flames when the attacker set areas of the Hampton Inn office on fire, police said.
The assailant, a white man in his 20s with dark brown spiky hair at 5’7”-5’8” with an average build, also set the woman’s back on fire, Murray said. She was in stable condition after the incident.
Before setting the fires, the suspect leapt the counter to the office, bound the victim and sexually assaulted her, Murray said. He also used a metal object, placed against the victim’s back, to make her think it was a weapon, the chief added.
Before setting her back on fire, the suspect placed several cans at the clerk’s feet in an effort to make them explode, Murray said.
“It’s a very bizarre crime,” Murray said, noting the suspect used spray cans found in the office for WD-40 and wasp spray to accelerate the flames. The small fires were set, apparently, to try and cover the suspect’s tracks, Murray said.
Someone staying at the hotel heard the clerk’s pleas for help after the assailant left and helped free her from where she was bound to an air conditioning unit. The “good Samaritan” also got the victim out of the hotel office by lifting her over the counter, the chief added.
Murray said he is concerned the suspect would attempt to commit a similar crime, but he was confident the assailant would be caught.
“I guarantee you we will solve this crime and bring this gentleman to justice,” Murray said Wednesday afternoon.
An officer was on the scene three minutes after the 911 call was placed near 12:30 a.m., Murray said. Area hotels get special attention from officers on the night shift and many times officers will walk into hotels to check in with personnel during their patrols, Murray said.
A hotel spokesman asked the community to keep the victim in their thoughts and prayers as she recovers from the third-degree burns, the most serious classification of the injury. The burns were limited to her back, police said.
Anyone with information on the assault is asked to call the Peachtree City Police Department at 770-487-8866.