Police Search For Sexual Battery Suspect In Satellite Beach

The Satellite Beach Police Department Criminal Investigations Division is currently investigating a sexual battery to a 22-year old female on the beach near 1343 State Road A1A.  This incident took place early Sunday morning (08/07/2011) just after midnight.  The victim was walking alone on the beach when she was approached from behind, pinned to the ground and sexually battered.  The victim stated the man implied he had a weapon and told her to comply and she would not be hurt.  After the attack he fled on foot down the beach in an unknown direction.  The victim was only able to provide a limited description of the male suspect.

A second incident involved an attempted sexual battery on Tuesday morning (08/09/2011) at approximately 2:00 am that occurred in the 400 block of Coach Road near the intersection of St. Johns Dr.  The victim in this case is an 18-year old female who was walking on Coach Road when she noticed she was being followed by a subject who she described as a white male, approximately 30-40 years of age with dark hair with a small to medium shorthaired dog.  The suspect began running after the female and tackled her to the ground in the yard at 490 Coach Road.  The suspect was in the process of removing the female’s clothing when a car stopped at an adjacent intersection and apparently scared the man, who abruptly stopped his attack ran east on Coach.

Satellite Beach Police Commander Brad Hodge provides the following statement:

“We don’t have specific evidence that points to one suspect responsible for both incidents but naturally we are considering they may be linked. Our investigators are going through evidence recovered from both scenes and following up on several leads.  We have increased our beach access patrols at night and we always encourage anyone walking on the beach, or anywhere at night for that matter, to walk with a friend or carry a cell phone.
That’s something every law enforcement agency will recommend.  This is highly unusual for the beach communities in Brevard but people have to realize that just because we are a small safe city we are not immune to serious crime from time to time.  We want to reach out to anyone that may have been in either area that can provide information that may help our investigation.”