The Turlock Police Department has released a series of sketches of a suspect believed to be the man responsible for inappropriately touching three young Turlock girls.
In addition to the three reported incidents, a fourth girl has now come forth to report an encounter with the suspect, though in this case there was no touching. The suspect allegedly made sexual comments to the girl, said Turlock Police spokesperson Officer Mayra Lewis.
The suspect is wanted for assaulting three young girls as they walked to and from school on March 24 and 25. All three assaults were reported in the vicinity of Christoffersen Parkway between McKenna Drive and Walnut Road, near Pitman High School, Turlock Junior High School, and Walnut Elementary School.
All three girls were able to escape from the suspect and provided similar descriptions of the assailant. The Turlock Police Department released four sketches drawn from the descriptions of the four girls. Each sketch represents a description provided by each girl.
“We still believe there is one suspect responsible for the assaults, but they just remember him differently,” Lewis said. “That can be for a number of reasons, including that they were afraid and under stress at the time. However, we are not discarding the possibility of more than one suspect.”
The victims all described the suspect as a white male adult, possibly in his 20s. He stood about 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet 10 inches and weighed approximately between 150 to 170 pounds. He has light brown or reddish hair with a scruffy beard. He was described wearing different clothing over the two days, including a dark-colored hooded sweatshirt on both days.
The first assault was reported around 3:55 p.m. March 24 in the 4000 block of McKenna Drive and involved a Pitman High School student. A 16-year-old girl was walking eastbound on Christoffersen when a man walking in the opposite direction passed by her and touched her inappropriately.
The second attack was reported at 7:20 a.m. March 25 by a 14-year-old girl walking to Pitman High School. The girl was walking westbound on Christoffersen when a man passed by her and groped her, Lewis said.
The girl was able to break away from the suspect and ran the rest of the way to school.
About that same time officials at Turlock Junior High School were learning of an assault on a 13-year-old girl. The girl was walking northbound on Shady Lane when a man, who she described as a jogger because he was running, came up to her and grabbed her arm. The girl pushed the man away and ran to the junior high campus.
The fourth girl reported her encounter happened before any of the other assaults, but she didn’t report it to a school resource officer until the other incidents were reported. The fourth girl is a student at Turlock Junior High School. The encounter occurred in the same vicinity as the others.
Extra patrols have been ongoing around the Walnut Elementary, Turlock Junior High and Pitman High school campuses.
Anyone spotting the suspect or a suspicious incident is asked to call the Turlock Police Department’s non emergency number at 668-1200. Anyone seeing an assault should call 911.
