Victim Fears Convicted Rapist Stalked Dallas for a Decade, at Times Hiding Among Homeless

The note on Wendy Birdsall's door was an unwelcome echo from her past life. "WENDY -- PLEASE CALL ME," an investigator from the district attorney's office wrote on a business card. Birdsall worried that maybe an arrest warrant from her years on the streets had brought the cops to her doorstep. Her fear turned into relief when the investigator told her that police had arrested the man they believed raped her in 2006 — and then she got angry. Roy Gutierrez, a 40-year-old homeless man, was arrested last month after another woman was abducted on the edge of Deep Ellum and raped. He's suspected in at least seven sexual assaults and has been convicted in one of those cases. Now, Birdsall can't help but wonder what would have happened had he been caught sooner."All these other girls wouldn't have been attacked," said Birdsall, 43. "All these girls wouldn't have to suffer the [expletive] I went through."  Continue reading...

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