Suspect known as 'blow torch' rapist in court Thursday

Suspected serial rapist strikes again in west Detroit, but police think they now have him in custody

DETROIT – Asia Murray will never forget what she saw Wednesday morning: a woman badly injured with burn marks all over her legs.

"Bad. Like, both her eyes like this big, like she was messed up, beat up. She had no clothes on, buck naked in this weather, running down the street, legs were burned up," said Murray.

Neighbors in the west Detroit community have lived in fear since the blow torch serial rapist first struck last summer, sexually assaulting women and then setting them on fire.

After several months in hiding he found his latest victim near a Citgo gas station on Meyers. He pulled her in his car, hitting her and burning her legs with a blow torch.

She found a screwdriver, stabbed him in the face and ran off.

"Thank God that she survived because she didn't deserve to be burnt up," said Brittany Childress, a friend of the victim.

On Thursday the 24-year-old suspect, Roderick Neely, is expected to be in court for a preliminary exam on charges of unlawful imprisonment, assault with intent to mame, assault with intent to do great bodily harm, assault to commit criminal sexual conduct and felony firearm.