By John Burman -- The Hamilton Spectator, September 5, 2002.
An 18-year-old Hamilton woman who suffered serious injuries when she was sexually assaulted and beaten early yesterday is in hospital, unable to talk to police.
A passerby found the partially-clad woman yesterday morning lying beneath overhanging sumac bushes beside a dilapidated and abandoned factory on Hess Street North, south of Stuart Street. The young woman, who is known to Hamilton police, is conscious but heavily sedated in Hamilton General Hospital. Because of her facial injuries she can't speak.
Police are looking for similarities between this attack and the murder of Kimlyn Judy Tolgyes, 19, whose battered, naked body was found dumped in a north Burlington Park last week.
Sergeant Maggie McKittrick, Hamilton police media relations officer, said no connection has been made between the two cases at this time.
Tolgyes' slaying is still a Halton police homicide investigation unless investigators trace the scene of the crime to Hamilton.
Police have said they are not planning a general warning about a potential predator to prostitutes and women who live on the street.
McKittrick said investigators, who issued a warning about a predator last September after three similar attacks on prostitutes, first want to see if there are patterns involving other incidents.
They still have to talk to the woman who was attacked yesterday.
McKittrick said that the woman is a street person but is not a prostitute, as was the case with the women the warning was issued about last September.
Meanwhile, Halton police continue to appeal for information from anyone who saw anything suspicious around Kerncliff Park off Kerns Road overnight Aug. 29.
Tolgyes, Halton's third homicide this year, died after she was struck on the head with a heavy, blunt object.
Tolgyes, who had a three-year-old daughter, was known to frequent the Barton Street East area in Hamilton between James Street and Wellington Street North and King Street East between East Avenue and Wentworth Street.
She was seen in Hamilton the night of Aug. 23 or 24 getting out of a red pickup truck on Grant Avenue.
Yesterday, a CN Rail employee found the young woman lying on the grass on the west side of Hess just south of the rail yards at 8 a.m. and called police.
Co-workers said the man was upset and went home after police arrived. Investigators spoke with him later.
The young woman has been identified and her guardians notified, they said.
Investigators are trying to determine where and when the attack took place and have appealed for any witnesses, who saw anything out of the ordinary along Hess Street North in the block south of Stuart Street overnight Tuesday, to contact Detective Greg Jackson of the sexual assault unit at 905-540-5543.
They hope to view videotape today which they seized from outdoor security cameras mounted at B & M Metal Recycling, whose property faces the area where the woman was found.
You can contact John Burman at jburman@hamiltonspectator.com or at 905-526-2469.
(Above) Hess Street North and Stuart Street, the location the unnamed woman was found.
(Below) Kerncliff Park, where Kimlyn Tolgyes was found.