Police Investigate After Man in Ski Mask Assaults Woman in Home

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Police have a man in custody after a woman says someone broke into her Hickman Mills area home Tuesday morning and sexually assaulted her. A next-door neighbor heard the woman scream and called for help. The neighbor said she saw the victim outside her window crying for help and carrying a pair of scissors in one hand. When police got there, they made an arrest after they say a man drove by the home one too many times.

“She was very, very shaken,” said the neighbor, who would identify herself only as Pam. “I was shaken and my daughter was shaken.”

At about 7:30 a.m., Pam said she was getting ready to take her daughter to school when she heard a woman crying or screaming outside. She said she wasn’t prepared for what she saw when she opened the door.

“My daughter said, ‘Mama, it’s the neighbor, it’s our neighbor,” Pam said. “So I let her in and she was really, really hysterical and crying. I asked her what was wrong and she said she just got assaulted and somebody broke in her home. That’s when I immediately called the police.”

A large, front, picture window had been shattered. Police said that’s how the intruder got inside. But no one reported hearing the window break, and police said they’re not sure how long the masked attacker may have been inside before the victim spotted him.

“What the victim is telling us is that she was getting ready for work this morning, she heard some noises out in the living room but really didn’t think much of it,” said Kansas City police spokesman Darin Snapp. “Because it wasn’t a loud noise, when she came out to leave to actually go out to work is when the suspect grabbed her tied her up and then he started ransacking the house, and before he left he actually sexually assaulted the victim.”

Police said as they investigated they found good evidence at the scene. And when an officer spotted the same car drive by for the third time, he noticed the driver matched the description of the attacker. Police followed the car to a nearby apartment complex on Blue Ridge Boulevard. There, police found the victim’s vehicle, which had been stolen following the attack. Officers took the man into custody for questioning.

Snapp said the man in custody is considered a person of interest. Pam, the neighbor, said the incident combined with a recent rash of break-ins at vacant homes on the block has virtually all neighbors on alert.