Police Find Getaway Vehicle In Knife Attack On Woman Near DePaul
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A day after police released surveillance video of a man wanted in a brutal knife attack on a recent DePaul University graduate, police also now have the stolen sport-utility vehicle that was believed to be used as a getaway car.
As CBS 2's Chelsea Irving reported Thursday, police found the white 2010 Suzuki Vitara at 96th Street and Dobson Avenue in the Cottage Grove Heights neighborhood – about a 45-minute drive from the crime scene on Halsted Street near Lincoln and Fullerton avenues.
The stolen SUV has Indiana license plates, police said.
Early on Thursday, July 18, police say the suspect brutally slashed the 22-year-old victim in the face and neck.
The recent graduate was walking down the street when police say the suspect attacked the woman, whom they believe he was attempting to sexually assault.
The young woman was left for dead, bleeding from the face and neck when a Good Samaritan found her.
"I [saw] a girl laying on the floor, full of blood on her forehead and the throat area," said the Good Samaritan, Syed Subhan. "I thought she got hit by a car, but then I see the blood and I realized it's something else."
Following the attack, the woman was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in critical condition. Police said she was nearly killed.
On Wednesday, police released surveillance video they say shows the suspect looking for cars to steal the day before the attack. The man is shown rolling up on a bicycle to 353 N. Desplaines St. in the Fulton River District and going through a garage before eventually making off with a car.
The suspect is known to frequent the area of Milwaukee and Grand avenues and Halsted, and the intersection of Orleans and Division streets.
On Thursday, with the suspect's getaway vehicle found police Supt. Eddie Johnson said he was feeling confident about an arrest.
"We've got some pretty good things in the hopper, so it's our hope that we'll bring this person in sooner than later," Johnson said.
As of Thursday, the victim's condition had been upgraded to serious.