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Once There Was a Barmaid

An older man owns a bar several miles out in the county from a major city; his wife, a much younger person, serves as barmaid. On the night of the attempted sexual assault, the wife left the bar early and when the husband returned later found his wife struggling with two suspects. The husband went back to the car for a gun and when he returned was able to get off one shot before the suspects disappeared into the bushes.

     I agreed to do two composites for the Sheriff's Office, but the victim said she could only remember one of them, the more aggressive of the two. The other suspect who was heaviest but shorter stayed in the background and just muttered "Don't be afraid, Miss, we not hurt you." The composite was developed but to my knowledge the suspects were never identified. The husband was more afraid of the suspects coming back and burning his bar than he was interested in catching them. My guess is that the composite is a good likeness of the primary suspect. Go Go dancers and barmaids make very good witnesses; I think because they spend a lot of time "sizing people up", but they loose interest in the investigation early on.

     Needless to say the suspects never returned to the bar and were not known to the Sheriff's Deputies which indicated that they came from the nearby major city. They had "cased" the bar by drinking there several nights before the attempted assault; that was probably when they noticed that the victim was inclined to leave early now and then.

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