"Rolling Rape Dungeon" Found in Rural California, Subject Arrested with Rape in Progress

From Fox LA

"LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Calif. — FOX 11 got an exclusive look inside the vehicle deputies are calling a "rape dungeon on wheels," after they caught a man, who they called a serial rapist, in the act in the San Gabriel Mountains earlier this week.

Inside the van, deputies said was "rigged for rape" was condoms, ropes, bungees, children's toys, multiple cell phones and hard drives and more. In the back, a metal partition, which was locked from the outside, with a worn and stained mattress.

All the evidence has been processed in the case. What FOX 11 saw left in the van was what was left after the investigation.

It's in that "cage" in the back of the van, where deputies said Eduardo Sarabia kept his victims, when he took them to a remote location in the Angeles National Forest to rape them.

And it's where deputies said they rescued a 26-year-old woman after deputies patrolling the area found the van, stopping a rape in progress and taking Sarabia into custody.

Sarabia was arrested Monday, and arraigned Tuesday on two felony counts of sexual assault for forcible rape of two women this week alone.

Deputies said Sarabia lived in the 2015 Ford Transit van, and would offer women rides, saying he was camping in the San Gabriel Mountains before taking them to an area off mile marker 21 on Highway 39, where there's no hope for a cell phone signal."

There are so many disturbing things about this story:

• Eduardo Sarabia's family wanted to turn him in long ago.  But America is so busy telling people which side of the imaginary line they can live on, that his family what afraid to tell authorities about the monster they allegedly knew him to be.
  
• The woman who ultimately tipped them off about Sarabia was being rousted from sleeping rough.  She begged the security guard to leave her alone because she'd just been raped.  So he called 911, which is what got them looking for Sarabia's van.
• The children's clothing and blood-spattered shoes in the van.
• The hard drives and cell phones, the suggestion of what may be recorded there.

Having been in the position of driving around the American West for several years sleeping in my van wherever I could, all of that curdles my blood.  Because the thing is you have to get far enough off the beaten path that the police won't bother you.  And in that case, anybody can kill you.