Rape prompts warnings for school kids

Metro Police and Clark County school officials are encouraging parents to talk to their children about street safety after a 13-year-old girl was abducted from a southern Las Vegas neighborhood and raped.

A circular sent home with schoolchildren this week reminds families of simple principles such as safety in numbers -- that children should walk to and from school with several friends if they cannot be escorted by an adult.

Also suggested are that children should neither take short cuts nor accept rides from strangers, and should keep a watchful eye for vehicles that may be following them.

Faye Welch, vice principal at Beatty Elementary School in southern Las Vegas, said the same tips were sent to families at the start of the school year.

Metro Police sexual assault detectives have spent the past few days interviewing the Silvestri Middle School girl since her attack about noon Friday, and on Wednesday released a composite sketch of her attacker, who was still at large as of this morning.

The man, whom the young girl said was a stranger to her, forced her into the car as she walked alongside the road in a residential area near La Cienega Street and Shelbourne Avenue, a few blocks from Las Vegas Boulevard South, Metro Lt. Tom Monahan said.

The man drove the girl south to an area near Jean, where he sexually assaulted her, then dropped her off at her home, Monahan said.

"We don't believe she was targeted. It appears this was a crime of opportunity," Monahan said. "She was walking alone."

The rapist is believed to be a white man about 34 years old, 6 feet 1 inch, 260 pounds, and was wearing blue jeans and dark sunglasses. At the time of the attack, he had several days' growth of beard and what has been described as a large, continuous eye brow.

At the time of the attack, he was driving what the girl described as a teal-colored two-door car, possibly an Acura or Honda, that may have had a peach-colored interior.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Secret Witness at 385-5555 or the sexual assault detail at 229-3421.

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