July 5th, 1979 3:57 AM. Sycamore Hill Court, Danville, California.
A man was awakened by a rustling sound on the other end of his bedroom. He opened his eyes, and in the reflection of the vanity he saw a figure in the room slipping a dark mask over his head. Something dangled from the man’s gloved hand.
The husband sat up with a start. He and the figure turned toward each other. The husband began screaming at the top of his lungs and shot out of bed.
“Who the fuck do you think you are?” the husband yelled at the intruder. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
The masked man took two steps backwards and then simply stood there blinking while the husband approached him continued to yell. His wife woke up due to the commotion. While her husband blocked the intruder into a corner, the wife ran past them, down the stairs, and out the door. Once outside, she began screaming for help.
The husband weighed his options and decided that he didn’t want to risk getting killed by this intruder. He told him “If you leave now, you can leave.” The husband then turned and ran as fast as he could down the hall, down the stairs, and outside to join his wife.
The police searched the immediate area, but they couldn’t find the assailant. Neither the victims nor a nearby neighbor who had come out to investigate the commotion saw any sign of him leaving. A bloodhound was able to track him, however, but by the time the trail was picked up, the man was long-gone.
The husband was able to give a very detailed description of the man he saw. Some of these details came out of an in-depth hypnosis session:
The intruder was a white male, mid twenties, 5’10” to 6’, 160 lbs, and had a thin build with square, athletic shoulders. The man’s face appeared to be youthful and lean but not bony or gaunt.
His eyes were round, deep-set, and light-colored, probably hazel. The separation between them was somewhere between medium and wide. They were sleepy-looking with heavy eyelids, despite being held wide open. His pupils seemed big or dilated, and his eyelashes were “full but not feminine.”
The mask appeared to be homemade, made out of wool, or something like it. It came down only to the jawline, leaving a tiny bit of his chin and neck exposed. The intruder didn’t appear to have a beard.
The jacket was a nylon or vinyl windbreaker. The collar was a “regular design with peaked and pointed folds outside and down.” The jacket lining was either fleece or flannel. There was gold (but possibly white) lettering on the left breast. The first letter was “C” and it was about a quarter-inch to a half-inch high. There were at least three other letters after the “C.” The victim felt that it said “Corn”.
It was unknown if the assailant had a weapon or a flashlight.
The rare police sketch at the top of the post shows how the husband in the failed Danville attack described his would-be assailant. One of the most important details to note in this sketch is the shape and style of the pockets.