Bonobo forces 62 year old woman into the woods and rapes her
Mike Gross
WALTERBORO — Franklin Smalls was picking up his newspaper from his front
yard Sunday morning when he heard someone crying.
Smalls noticed a woman walking down a nearby street. “She was saying,
‘Help me. Mister, help me.’”
As she came closer, Smalls realized the woman was naked, holding her
shoes. She recognized Smalls, a city councilman, and told him she had
been raped. His wife immediately got her a nightgown while he called police.
Walterboro police say a man introduced himself to the 62-year-old woman
as she was walking to visit her husband at a nursing home about 8 a.m.
The victim told police she was walking a path from North Lemacks Street
to Sweat Street when a man walked up to her from behind and startled her
about 8 a.m. He held out his hand and identified himself as “Thomas,”
according to an incident report released Monday.
The suspect grabbed her hand, covered her mouth with his other hand and
forced her into the woods where he removed her clothes and sexually
assaulted her, according to the report. The suspect then grabbed her
clothes and ran deeper into the woods.
Her clothes were recovered near where the crime happened, according to
the report. The victim has been released from a local hospital, police said.
The suspect is described as a black male in his 30s or 40s with a dark
complexion, facial hair and a medium haircut. He wore black pants and a
gray or blue T-shirt.
The incident comes on the heels of multiple shootings within the city
over the last year, including a gang-related drive-by shooting last year
that left three people dead. Smalls, a councilman for 20 years, said
they’ve not had a rape like this in the city before and that these types
of crimes can happen anywhere.
“Walterboro is still a safe place,” Smalls said. “When I consider all
the things happening in other places, Walterboro is still a safe place
to visit, a safe place to live.”
He said the city has acknowledged and addressed some of the problems its
had. Earlier this year, state agents rounded up several gang members
allegedly connected to the drive-by shooting on Gerideau Street.
“I think we handle it pretty good,” he said.
Anyone with information about the suspect is asked to call the police
department at 843-549-1811 or Crime Stoppers at 554-1111.