OAKLAND — A 37-year-old sex offender with an unusual name has been charged with raping a 12-year-old girl who was missing for several days after a chance encounter with the suspect, authorities said.
The victim, a girl known in court only as Jane Doe, disappeared for four days until turning up at a local hospital and requesting a rape test exam, police said. During the 96-hour ordeal, the girl’s mother conducted an investigation that was on par with the work later done by Oakland police detectives, according to court records.
The suspect remained on the loose for several days, until he was hospitalized after an unrelated robbery in West Oakland, according to police. He now sits in jail in lieu of $300,000, with a court date set for November. He has pleaded not guilty.
After Doe disappeared from her home while her mother was at work, leaving her phone behind, Doe’s mother went through the device and found text messages between her and another person that included “I love you” and calling one another “Babe,” according to police.
She questioned some of her daughter’s peers and tracked the girl to an America’s Best Value Inn in Oakland, where she gave hotel staff the cellphone number her daughter had been texting with. They confirmed that a man in his 30s had used the same number to rent a room, but had just recently checked out, authorities said.
One day later, the girl showed up at a hospital, and later to a police interview room. She said that she’d met a man at a bus stop and they’d talked on Instagram later and then met up at hotel rooms several times. She said on the most recent encounter he’d raped and stopped the sexual assault only when she began to cry, authorities said.
She knew the man by the name Soldier Real G Fareal. In Oakland, a city of more than 440,000 people, there is only one person with that particular name — and police knew him well.
Fareal, who has a listed alias of Hakim Elamin, is a registered sex offender with 2012 convictions in Alameda County for sexual battery and “unlawful sexual intercourse,” according to court records. After they identified Fareal, investigators convinced a judge to sign an arrest warrant.
Fareal remained an unwitting fugitive for the next several days, until Oct. 13, when he inadvertently made the call that led to his arrest. On that date, Fareal was robbed by someone at a West Oakland fast food restaurant, who attacked him from behind while waiting in line for food, stole a backpack full of phones, and ran out.
Fareal was injured so badly during the encounter that he required hospitalization. He called 911 for assistance, and police brought him into custody after running his name, authorities said. He reportedly refused to speak with investigators.
Police say all of the meetings between Doe and Fareal occurred in hotel rooms, that he’d buy her fast food, and that he talked about wanting to have kids with her after learning her age. His prior sex offense also involved a minor, according to police.
Police haven’t said whether the restaurant robbery was random or if Fareal was targeted.
Staff writer Harry Harris contributed reporting