Manhunt For Reno Rapist

As authorities launched a manhunt, University of Nevada, Reno students expressed fear over a serial rapist sought in the murder of a 19-year-old college student and the attacks of at least two other women.

Female students said Sunday they're taking precautions such as carrying pepper and bear spray, a day after Reno police announced Brianna Denison was strangled to death by the same man who earlier attacked two other women.

Denison's Jan. 20 abduction and the other attacks late last year occurred in the same area on the edge of the campus. Denison's body was found Friday in a field near a business park about 8 miles from the house where she was last seen.

Freshman Darrylln Thomas, who lives in a dormitory two blocks away from the house, said the string of attacks has put students on edge and received considerable mention in their MySpace.com pages.

Among other advice, MySpace users have urged other students to scratch the suspect for his DNA if attacked and to be aware that the attacks have occurred around the middle of the month.

"A lot of students think he's going to do it again," Thomas said Sunday at the student union building. "Everybody is pretty scared. Students are carrying tasers, pepper spray and bear spray. I'm very paranoid."

Reno police pledged an all-out effort to capture the suspect and appealed to the public for help. They said the rapist's familiarity with the city suggests he likely lives in Reno.

"I would say this is a serial rapist," Reno Deputy Police Chief Jim Johns said at a news conference Saturday. "I'm worried this guy is still out there, and I'm worried somebody else is going to get hurt."

While police are confident the rapist ultimately will be found, "our absolute fear is he may re-offend," Johns added.

One of the victims, who is no longer living in the area, has been cooperating with the police, and provided an extensive description of the suspect and the suspect's vehicle, reported CBS News'Early Show correspondent Jeff Glor.

One of the "Bring Bri Back" fliers with her photo and information about a suspect and his vehicle was tacked to a telephone pole on the corner of the field where her body was found about noon on Friday.

Denison family members said they would not relent until the suspect is brought to justice.

"We are not giving up until we find that bastard," her aunt, Lauren Denison, told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "This shouldn't have happened ... I know all of us, and the community, want to get our hands on him, but that's not realistic."

A makeshift memorial featuring flowers, teddy bears and a photo of Denison drew periodic visitors Sunday to the brush-covered field where her body was found in the city's south side.

Blue ribbons hung in Denison's memory around the neighborhood where she was abducted, as well as outside the governor's mansion in Carson City. Her family has urged the community to place blue ribbons - her favorite color - around their homes until her burial. Funeral arrangements were pending.

"We will be honoring that request at the mansion and encourage all Nevadans to do the same," said Gov. Jim Gibbons, whose 20-year-old son, Jimmy, was a classmate of Denison at Reno High School.

Denison was a student at Santa Barbara City College in California. She was visiting her hometown over winter break and was last seen sleeping on a couch at a friend's rental house just off the Reno campus.

DNA evidence links Denison's kidnapping to two other attacks on women near the university late last year, police said. An earlier campus attack also could be related. In that incident, the attacker brazenly raped a woman at gunpoint in a garage where campus police park their cruisers.

University President Milton Glick issued a statement urging students to take precautions. The attacks have prompted expanded campus patrols and escorts, seminars on personal safety and the distribution of whistles to female students.

"University police advise that you remain aware of your surroundings and avoid situations that put you at risk, such as walking alone at night or leaving doors and windows unlocked," Glick said.

Senior Alix Frank, who lives 2½ blocks away from the house where Denison vanished, said she's taking the advice to heart and is carrying pepper spray.

"I'm getting nervous because of the progression of the crimes," she said. "It hasn't destroyed my life with paranoia, but I'm definitely taking more precautions. I just hope they can make an arrest as soon as possible."

Sophomore Jasmine Jia said the string of attacks has prompted her to end her nature walks and bicycle rides away from campus and left her feeling anger and frustration.

"It gives me a fleeting moment of suspicion when I see a stranger now," she said. "My freedom of mobility and independence have been taken away by one individual. But it's merely an inconvenience and is nothing compared to what Brianna Denison had to go through."
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