Hey, it's Nancy. Before we begin today, I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to

Crime Beat early and add free on Amazon Music included with Prime. The following episode contains descriptions of sexual violence and may not be suitable for everyone.

It also contains coarse language, adult themes, and content of a violent and disturbing nature.

Listener discretion is advised.

When I think back to the early 2000s, I remember covering a series of stories about

serial sexual predators attacking complete strangers. There was the Hemlock Crescent rapist whose actions

gripped an entire city in fear in the late 1980s and early 90s. He evaded arrest until 2004. I share that story in season 5 called

hunted on Hemlock Crescent. Then there was the Beltline Rapist who also attacked strangers. In 2003 and 2004, he violently beat and raped two young women in their own homes.

One victim was 17, the other was 19 years old.

Police used some unique strategies

to track this offender.

You can listen to that story in surviving a predator and a follow-up episode.

Both of those cases took interesting twists and both of the predators are free right now after serving their sentences.

Another case I covered extensively was the Falcon Ridge rapist who terrorized a Northeast

Calgary community.

He grabbed strangers and violently sexually assaulted them.

He was finally caught in August of 2006 with the help of a

composite sketch drawn by a veteran sex crimes detective who I spoke to for drawing out a suspect in season 3.

There's a lot to this story, and I plan to share more in a future episode.

These are just three examples of the cases I was covering at that time.

What's interesting is that this kind of stranger attack is actually considered to be quite rare in Calgary.

Most sex assaults are committed by someone the victim knows.

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