2nd attack tied to suspected abduction

DNA evidence now links the suspected abduction of a 19-year-old woman from a friend's home to two attacks on women near a university late last year, and authorities said Thursday that they're investigating still another attack that could be related.

Already linked to a sexual assault in December, DNA evidence ties the suspected abduction of 19-year-old Brianna Denison on Jan. 20 to a November attack in the same neighborhood, police said.

And police have released a sketch of a suspect in an October attack in a parking garage near the University of Nevada, Reno, that investigators believe might be tied to the other cases. The woman who said she was attacked came forward because of the extensive media coverage of Denison's disappearance, University Police Chief Adam Garcia said.

The woman said she was attacked at gunpoint at about 10 p.m. Oct. 22 in a garage within 100 yards of a campus police station. She said a man "attacked her from behind, knocked her to the ground and held a gun to her head while sexually assaulting her," Garcia said.

Reno Police Cmdr. Ron Holladay said that there's no evidence that connects the October attack to the other incidents but that investigators are "not discounting the possibility these cases may be connected all together."

"Some of the characteristics are similar that she has given; however, I wouldn't go as far as to say they are an exact match by any means," he said, adding that "not inconsistent" was an accurate way to describe them.

The assailant in the October attack is described as a slender white male in his 20s or 30s with light brown or dirty blond hair, who stands 5 feet 8 to 5 feet 10, Garcia said. In the other attacks, victims estimated the assailant was between 28 and 40 years old.

The woman described the weapon as a handgun, the first time police have reported the use of a gun in any of the attacks.

Dennison, a freshman at Santa Barbara City College in California, was reported missing after spending the night at a friend's home near the university. A Reno High School graduate, she was home visiting friends and relatives during winter break.

Evidence collected at the scene of the Nov. 13 attack included unopened packages of a new brand of condoms, Holladay said.

On Dec. 16, another female victim was battered, kidnapped, sexually assaulted and then taken home by the suspect, he said.

On Jan. 19, the night before Denison last was seen, an unknown suspect returned the home of the victim of the December attack and tried to break in, police said.