Cypress Police Find Rape Victim’s Car; Assailant at Large

Cypress police said Wednesday that they have recovered the car in which a 20-year-old Cypress College student was raped and are canvassing the area seeking witnesses to the crime.

The woman was abducted from a campus parking lot shortly after she left class about 11 a.m. Tuesday. The assailant, a man believed to have been armed with a knife, is described as about 25 years old, 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighing 180 pounds. Investigators said the man forced the student into the passenger’s seat of her own car and drove away with her.

Police later found the car abandoned in a parking lot near Lincoln Avenue and Valley View Street in Cypress. Officials said the vehicle, a new black Honda sedan, has been impounded and is being examined by investigators from the Orange County sheriff’s crime laboratory.

Police officers, meanwhile, are interviewing local merchants, following up on possible leads phoned in by the public and circulating a composite drawing of the assailant.

Investigators said the man--who had black hair shaved on all sides, long on top and gelled back--was neatly dressed and carrying a soft, black nylon briefcase.