Miami Beach Rape Suspect On The Run

MIAMI BEACH (CBS4) – A Miami Beach man who reportedly kidnapped and repeatedly raped a woman on Christmas Eve is on the run.

According to police, the 48-year-old woman met up with 44-year-old Freddy Padilla on the evening of December 24th. Over the next day and a half, police said Padilla beat and raped her in his Ocean Drive apartment and in the woman's own apartment.

On December 26th, the woman's daughter went looking for her mother since she had not shown up on Christmas Day. Police said she found her battered mother and Padilla in the woman's apartment. When she began to confront Padilla, he took off and hasn't been seen since.

Padilla was a maintenance man at the Blue Ocean Hotel since August and also lived there. David Possin, who said he knows Padilla and spoke to investigators, described him as a man who was often drunk and said he was like a time bomb ready to go off.

"He was drunk often and when he became drunk he was very aggressive and he has a history of violence towards woman," Possin said. "This was not the first time. He had a rap sheet. I was expecting that the way he was behaving. He was a bomb ready to blow up. The three weeks before Christmas he was a non-stop drunk and irrational."

Padilla's image is plastered on fliers around the hotel.

"I think the whole building's upset," Rob Carr, who also knows Padilla, said.

Debbie Lockett, who knows Padilla, said "I think it's horrible. "It's devastating."

Police said Padilla has a violent past. Carr said Padilla needs to be caught.

"He needs to be caught and punished accordingly," Carr said. "It's not right that this happen to people, that they go and they are abused."

D'Oench reported that it's alleged that Padilla attacked a woman he was dating for a few months.

"It was an on and off again girlfriend, but it wasn't a tight relationship…but she would come over and they would drink together," Possin said. "They would be drunk together."

Possin said that Padilla became known as the hotel's "drunk" maintenance man.

"I don't understand how he existed here and how that was tolerated," Possin pointed out. "He was drunk all the time. He didn't belong here. "I feel sorry for her. No woman deserves that. Nobody deserves that."

Hotel residents were told the victim was hospitalized.

Police said that Padilla could be dangerous. He is described as 5 feet 9, weighing 160 pounds and has curly brown hair.

Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS (8477).