Mark Rathbun's first known rape victim was in Seattle in 1996. She
described a man to police who had apparently been closely stalking her
in the day or days before the attack. As Mark Rathbun forced
himself on this first victim, he discussed what she had eaten the day
before, where she went to school, and even what he had seen on her
computer screen. He told the victim he wouldn't hurt her if she did
what he said, but he also told her he would "snap" her neck, a threat
triggered by her scream. Mark Rathbun's next victim was in the same neighborhood, a few blocks away, but this time he was more casual and to the point
when he gained the victim's compliance by saying he could "break her neck." Five doors away from his first victim's home, Mark
Rathbun told his third victim simply that he would kill her to gain her
compliance, and it was in this incident that Mark Rathbun assumed the persona of "Tio".
With a growing number of court actions and failure to appear
warrants against him in Seattle, Mark Rathbun left the city and his
victims behind and returned to Southern California. He apparently
committed his next attack within hours of his arrival back home in
January of 1997, and he continued, seemingly at random, to strike
dozens of times with little regard for continuity in victim types or
attack methods until he was finally stopped in late 2002.
Mark Rathbun was initially apprehended shortly after the last of
his attacks in the early morning of November 7th 2002. His prey
escaped by biting his gloved right index finger before he ran. Shortly
after 1:00 a.m., Long Beach Police Officer Kevin DeLorto was responding
to the area of the victim's home. As the gods of fate would finally
have it, Officer DeLorto lived in the neighborhood too, and with a
policeman's best hunch anticipating the rapist's escape route, he encountered
Mark Rathbun three blocks away riding on an unlighted bicycle. Officer DeLorto stopped Mark Rathbun and ordered him off the bicycle explaining
it was unlit and that he that he needed to speak to him about an
incident in the neighborhood.
Mark Rathbun truthfully told Officer DeLorto his name, but explained
that he had no identification with him. He stated he was en route from a friend's
house to his residence. The officer noted that he had a cap tucked in
his waistband and a cut near the front of his right index finger that
was bleeding on opposite sides. Mark Rathbun made nothing of the
injury claiming he cut himself when he dismounted the bicycle. As Mark
Rathbun was being detained, Officer DeLorto telephoned his own mother,
who lived just a few houses away from where he and Rathbun were then
standing, to tell her he was going to be late getting home. She
replied that just a few moments earlier she heard someone trying to
break into their home and she scared the intruder away by screaming and
swinging a baseball bat into the door.
Long Beach Police Sergeant Patrick Burns came on scene, took a
DNA swab from Mark Rathbun's mouth and found a crack pipe hidden in the
folds of his pocket. Sergeant Burns asked what he had been doing, and
this time Mark Rathbun replied that he was "out for a bike ride."
Sergeant Burns didn't feel Mark Rathbun was their suspect, but it was
Officer DeLorto who decided to arrest him rather than just citing him
for possessing the crack pipe.
