A convicted, violent rapist out on parole cut off the court-ordered GPS monitoring device on his ankle and is on the loose in Los Angeles, according to LA Weekly. Joseph Serapiglia, 43, who raped, stabbed and beat a 31-year-old woman before hurling her down a hill in Topanga Canyon in 1991, cut off the ankle bracelet late Friday night.
Serapiglia, then 20, had lured his victim, to a rendezvous by telling her he needed her to look for his father, who was lost in Topanga Canyon. She wound up with a skull fracture and a punctured lung.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the victim, who was under 5 feet tall and less than 100 pounds, was taken by Serapiglia in his van to the top of the canyon, then raped and stabbed six times. Sheriff’s Sgt. John O’Brien said Serapiglia left her for dead after he threw her down the hill. The woman crawled back to the road, where Dana Vinson and two friends with her were parked among roughly six other cars. The victim managed to say, “Hey you guys, somebody please help me, I’ve been raped and stabbed,” Vinson said, adding, “She walked up to us and as soon as she got close enough I could see that she was bloody from head to toe.” Vinson said the other cars left hurriedly to avoid being part of the situation, but she and her woman friend transported the victim to a hospital.
Police told the Weekly that Serapiglia’s last known address was somewhere in the communities of Highland Park, Glassell Park, Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Eagle Rock or nearby communities. The police refer to Serapiglia as “a dangerous felon who has exhibited a violent nature and is a threat to the communities of Southern California.”
Serapiglia had spent 23 years of his 42 year sentence behind bars before he was released and put on parole eight months ago. He is 5 feet, 11 inches, 175 pounds with brown hair, brown eyes and a mustache, and sports tattoos on his back.