By Sheila McLaughlin
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HAMILTON TWP. - Police in this fast-growing Warren County township cautioned residents to keep their garage doors closed and locked Thursday after a 44-year-old woman in an upscale subdivision off of Fosters-Maineville Road said she was dragged to her bedroom and raped by two armed men who surprised her as she was leaving for the grocery.

Officers from six agencies searched the rural area of the township with police canines and a helicopter for the men who abandoned the woman's stolen white Buick Skylark and fled on foot.

The woman, whose school-age daughter and husband were not home at the time, told Hamilton Township officers that two white men with shaved heads accosted her in her open garage about 2 p.m.

"She went to get in her car and they were in her garage," Detective Sgt. Andy Roosa said.

The two men threatened her with a knife and a handgun and led her to an upstairs bedroom in the two-story brick house, where they bound her wrists with packaging tape and raped her, Sgt. Roosa said.

The men stole the family car, which was later found parked in a ditch with the keys in the ignition on Morrow-Cozzadale Road, about six miles away, he said.

The woman, who was not seriously injured, was able to free herself and call 911 at 2:54 p.m., Sgt. Roosa said.

She did not know her attackers, he said. The woman said both suspects appeared to be 17-20 years old. One was stocky, she said, with brown eyes and short brown hair and wearing a black sweat suit. The other was short and thin, with a small diamond stud earring in his right ear, wearing a blue sweat shirt and blue jeans. Both had acne.

Neighbors in the quiet cul-de-sac of $200,000-$350,000 were shocked that such a crime had occurred in the suburban subdivision where residents casually walk their dogs and children play.

Sgt. Roosa said police have not encountered any similar incidents in the township of 9,630 residents, where about 6,000 new homes were under construction in recent years.

"People need to shut their garage doors, even in the daytime," Sgt. Roosa said. "They never know."

E-mail smclaughlin@enquirer.com