The Metropolitan Police Department has indicated that one person may be responsible for the string of at least eight incidents in which a man has climbed into women’s beds in the Georgetown area.
“MPD is currently investigating all crimes,” Second District Commander Matthew Klein wrote in an email. “Investigators are looking at all possibilities. However, all indications at the moment point toward one suspect.”
The MPD and Georgetown’s Department of Public Safely have classified the instances as burglaries.
The incidents seem to occur in spurts. Aside from the first isolated offense on January 13, 2008, all of the other burglaries have taken place within a few weeks of similar occurrences. The first string of episodes began with a burglary on May 16, 2008, followed by two more on June 1 and June 26.
There were no other incidents until September 5, 2008. The offender, whom many students have begun to call the “Georgetown Cuddler,” struck again in Village A on September 25, 2008. This was the first time an incident took place on Georgetown’s campus.
The most recent series began on February 11, 2009. This offense was followed by another burglary on February 26.
Gabrielle Perreux (MSB `09) woke up around 3 a.m. on February 11, 2009, to find an unknown male under the covers of her bed.
“The second the person realized that I had woken up, he started walking away,” she said. “I said, ‘Who is that? Who is that?’ The person just kept walking away.”
Perreux described the assailant as a white male with dark brown hair. She believes that the door to her house was locked, but at least eight other people live in the house.
“I was definitely concerned, but I didn’t think that much of it because he didn’t actually touch me,” Perreux said.
Samantha Sutton (COL `09) had a similar experience on February 26, 2009, at 5:30 a.m.
“I woke up with someone in my bed with his arms around me,” Sutton said. “I turned around and he walked out of the room. I said, ‘Hello,’ but he walked out of the room. Then my roommate woke up.”
The door to Sutton’s room was unlocked at the time because another roommate had just left the house. Sutton and her roommates thought that the man might have been watching the house and seen the woman leave.
Sutton and Perreux provided slightly different descriptions of the men who climbed into bed with them. Perreux thought that the assailant was white, although she acknowledged that she was not wearing her contacts and had been “out with a bunch of [her] friends” that night.
Sutton, however, said she was confident that the assailant was Hispanic. She had not been drinking before the incident, and a light was on in the room.
The Georgetown University Department of Public Safety declined to comment for the article.
Klein said that no suspects have been identified in the investigation, but that MPD is working closely with Georgetown to keep students safe and is encouraging students to keep their doors locked at all times since the suspect typically gains entry through unlocked doors.
