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Walmart Rape Case Suspect Busted By Feds
January 27, 2010
The U.S. Marshals Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested a man Tuesday who is believed to be the suspect wanted in connection with the New Year’s Day rape of a Pensacola woman abducted from a Walmart parking lot on Highway 29 in Pensacola.
Willard Ray Crowder, 47, was arrested at a security storage facility on East Olive Road at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday by the Task Force without incident. The warrant, which was signed Tuesday morning, charges Crowder with sexual assault with a weapon, sexual battery on a victim over 12 and kidnapping inflicting bodily harm or terrorizing victim. According to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office reports, the warrant was issued after their investigation linked Crowder to the rape based on evidence found at the crime scene.
The Marshals Task Force received the case from the Sheriff’s Office at about 1 p.m. and immediately began their investigation. It was determined early on that Crowder was most likely homeless and possibly in the area of Olive Road.
Task Force investigators conducted several interviews and were able to narrow down his whereabouts. They then received a call that Crowder was at a business and it was just a couple of blocks away from where they were at that time. Crowder was immediately identified and placed into handcuffs. Crowder was then transported to the Escambia County Jail and interviewed by investigators before being booked into the Escambia County Jail. Crowder is being held without bond at this time.
The rape was reported late New Year’s Day night in the parking lot of the Ensley Walmart on Highway 29. The woman told deputies that she was having car trouble in the parking lot when the man put a knife to her throat and forced her into the back of a van. She was driven a short distance before her attacker raped her. She was driven back to Walmart and dropped off, told that she would be killed if she reported the attack to authorities.
The Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force in Pensacola is made up of officers from the U.S. Marshals Office, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Escambia, Okaloosa and Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Offices, Milton, Pensacola, Ft. Walton Beach, Niceville and DeFuniak Springs Police Departments, State Attorney’s Office, the Office of Attorney General and the 1st Special Operations Security Force at Hurlburt Field.
Comments
9 Responses to “Walmart Rape Case Suspect Busted By Feds”
I am so thankful they caught this sick person. The woman was my little sister and he deserve to rot in hell!!! My sister is strong and I am so proud of her.Thank you to all the Police officer that put the dirt bag away.
Excellent police work!!!
Caught the bad guy!
this victim should be applauded for the great job she did in surviving the attack and paying close attention to details that would lead to the arrest and conviction of her attacker!
the sketch is amazingly close to his photo!
I bet it’ll take a jury about 10 minutes to take a bathroom break, grab a drink and return a guilty verdict! He’s bound to plead this one out, they better not slap this scumbag on the wrist this time. According to PNJ’s article, this is NOT his first arrest for kidnapping and assault.
I am always amazed by those composite sketches. It is unbelievable just how accurate they are sometimes.
im “guessing” that he was ALREADY in a data base and was matched up from the “evidence found at the scene of the crime” (DNA) ….and, based on efforts of the huge umbrella of task force representatives, from the various northwest florida counties/angencies, im “guessing” that this may not be the first similar encounter that this individual has ever been charged with….my “guess” is that, likely, he was living out of his van, had this crime planned, and had all of the necessary equiptment ready, in the back of his van to subdue the young victim, once he had forced her in….as horrible as this is, she is so fortunate to be alive today…..great work on the part of the entire task force.
http://www.northescambia.com/?p=13525
pretty close – especially the mouth.
Innocent until proven guilty – then, not homeless any more.
This guy will not have fun at Railford.
i was thinking the same thing, bill
Another one caught. Hope the have the right guy. I would love to see the sketch of him that was posted beside his photo. Just to see how close they came.