By Jim Hannah
Enquirer staff writer

FORT WRIGHT - A two-month manhunt for a serial rapist has led detectives to another victim.

The FBI now says one man has committed seven sexual assaults and eight robberies during nine separate incidents in Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana since 1992.

The latest victim was a clerk who was sexually assaulted during a March holdup at Authorized Cellular and Paging in Centerville, Ohio.

"I'm concerned about the increased frequency of the attacks," said William O'Leary, who heads the FBI's Northern Kentucky office. "There have been six robberies and four (included) sexual assaults since January."

He said a task force is combing through robbery files in Northern Kentucky, Southwest Ohio and Southeast Indiana looking for other unsolved assaults that could be linked to the same man. Five of the sexual assaults - including one in 1992 and another in 1999 - have already been linked through forensic evidence such as DNA.

A special Web page to distribute information about the attacks has received 1,500 hits since it was created two months ago.

A telephone tip line has gotten 150 calls.

Detectives say they do not know whether the rapist lives in the region or why he went seven years between his first known attack and second attack, at Devou Park, in Covington.

Because all of the attacks have occurred during winter, some investigators have speculated that the man travels outside of the Tristate for the summer.

From the first attack 12 years ago in Colerain Township to the latest in Centerville, the predator has maintained a pattern.

O'Leary said the man enters a business and talks to the clerk, sometimes inquiring about a job. The suspect then leaves, only to return when the clerk is alone, often near the store's closing time. He orders the clerk to a back room, restrains her, rapes her and then grabs cash from the register before leaving. He uses a small, silver-colored or shiny handgun.

And he never wears a disguise. Detectives have released six composite sketches of what is believed to be the same rapist. Those pictures can be downloaded from the Boone County Sheriff's Department Web site. The man has never been caught on security videotapes.

Witnesses describe him as a sophisticated, well-spoken, white man with piercing blue eyes. He is 35 to 40 years old, 5-foot-6 to 6-feet tall and has dark brown hair.

Fort Wright Police Chief Dan Kreinest advises storeowners to take extra care when leaving female clerks alone. He suggests that employers have at least two clerks in the store at all times and install security cameras.

"I would post the composite sketch of the suspect in the door of your business," Kreinest said. "I can't imagine the suspect wanting to walk into a store that had his composite sketch plastered on the window."

Police ask anyone with information about the crimes to call Crime Stoppers at (513) 352-3040 or officers with the task force at (859) 334-3500. Tips can also be e-mailed to tipline@boonecountyky.org. Composite sketches can be downloaded from www.boonecountyky.org/sheriff/.

E-mail jhannah@enquirer.com