Aug. 31--A search is underway for a man police are calling "very dangerous" after they say he stabbed and sexually assaulted a woman during a home invasion Saturday afternoon in southwest suburban Willowbrook.
The victim, a woman in her 20s, was loading her vehicle in a driveway in the 700 block of 73rd Court at 1:11 p.m. Saturday when a dark blue Nissan Altima, possibly a 2006, pulled up and a man approached her and asked for money, Willowbrook police said during a news conference Sunday.
She refused and went into the home, but the man began knocking on a side door and asking to use her phone. He then forced his way inside, where a struggle ensued and she was stabbed multiple times with an unknown sharp object, police said.
Additionally, Deputy Chief Mark Altobella confirmed there were reports of her being sexually assaulted and said he has heard nothing to doubt those reports. The woman remains in intensive care at a local hospital, her family said.
"I believe he (the suspect) is very dangerous. This woman went through quite a beating,'' Altobella said during the news conference at the station Sunday afternoon.
"Right now, our focus is on finding this person, as well as the health and well-being of our victim," Altobella said.
"She was unrecognizable. She has six broken bones to her face at least,'' according to the woman's 29-year-old sister, who was reached by phone Sunday morning. "We saw four stab wounds to the face, and there were a total of 17 stab wounds.''
The victim was alone inside the home loading gifts and decorations into her vehicle and getting ready to go to another home where family members were throwing a 54th birthday party for their mother when the assault happened, her sister said. The Tribune is not naming the woman or her family member because of the nature of the crime.
"She was just wrapping things up and getting ready to leave the house,'' her sister said. She fought back "as hard as she could.''
Altobella wouldn't elaborate on the woman's condition or the number or place of her wounds. He said she has serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
"The doctors were amazed that all these knife wounds missed major arteries and organs,'' her sister said, adding that her liver and kidney were only "nicked.''
The woman's lips and face were swollen, and one eye was swollen shut, her sister said.
The suspect, whom the woman did not know, left after the attack, and the woman ran to a neighbor's house, where police were called, police said. The suspect fled in the Altima, which has tinted windows and a "wind reflector" where the sunroof is, police said.
The woman told police the car had bicentennial Indiana license plates, and Willowbrook investigators were working with Indiana authorities.
Responding officers were given a brief description of the suspect and searched the home with a K-9 unit while the woman was taken to the hospital.
The victim said the man is black, in his 30s, about 5-foot-10, 160 to 180 pounds, wearing a blue short-sleeved shirt and dark-colored khaki shorts with white socks, police said. His hair is dark and combed back with "dread-type curls on the end,'' Altobella said. He was unshaven, police said.
A person fitting the suspect's description might have been in the area earlier in the week, and police are re-interviewing neighbors. Police said they don't know if the man is still in the area.
"They were going door-to-door telling everyone to lock up and be safe,'' the sister said.
Police took sketches to residents in the area and a nearby strip mall, Willowbrook police Chief Mark Shelton said.
Willowbrook police ask anyone with tips to call 630-325-2808 or 630-325-2121. The department has received a few tips so far, Altobella said. No arrests have been made.
"He's an animal. This man doesn't even deserve to be called a man,'' the woman's sister said. "My heart is broken.''
