Palm Beach County Serial Rapist Attacks Victim Number Five, Police Say

The "very violent" man suspected of raping women for more than two years has recorded his fifth attack, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office believes.

Investigators have connected the September 23 sexual assault of a 22-year-old to their suspected rapist, marking the second assault linked to the rapist in Lake Worth and the fourth in the Lake Worth area.

According to the PBSO's Teri Barbera, the September 23 attack occurred around 6:30 a.m. as the woman was listening to her iPod and walking near her apartment complex on the 2500 block of Tenth Avenue North when the rapist pulled his shirt over his head and attacked her.

The rapist proceeded to drag her into some bushes about six feet from the sidewalk she was walking on, and he bit her in the face twice as she attempted to fight him off, police say.

He then put his arm across her throat and covered her mouth with his hand until she lost consciousness. When the woman woke up, her pants were off and her purse had been taken, according to the cops.

The woman told police the guy was between five-foot-five and five-foot-six and pudgy, with shoulder-length dark hair and a Spanish accent. He was wearing a white shirt and blue jeans at the time, police say.

The two previous victims to the September 23 attack also had their belongings taken, and two of them were bitten by the rapist as well.

Here's a quick rundown of the previous four attacks:

• April 9, 2009 -- Near Old Dixie Highway in Jupiter, a 21-year-old woman was raped, beaten, battered, and bitten while on a walk through her neighborhood at night.
  

• July 24, 2009 -- A 26-year-old woman was attacked and raped inside her Palm Springs home.

• August 8, 2009 -- A 53-year-old woman was sitting outside her Lake Worth house at night when she was raped, beaten, and bitten.

• January 16, 2010 -- A 58-year-old Lake Worth woman was walking to work early that morning when she was "violently battered" and raped.