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Police release sketch of man they say brutally assaulted woman, left her for dead

LOVEJOY, Ga. — Lovejoy police are hunting for a man they said attacked and then tortured a Clayton County woman for hours before leaving her for dead.

The woman survived and is recovering in a local hospital from what police describe as a "severe beating."

A GBI sketch artist Wednesday sat down with the victim and drew a portrait of the man they are looking for.

Police hope the sketch will lead them to the suspect known only to the woman as "Raheem."

Channel 2's Tony Thomas spoke with the victim who described the ordeal.

"He tortured me for hour, for hours. It's like he enjoyed just torturing me," the woman said.

Channel 2 Action News is withholding the name of the victim for her protection.

The victim said she first met the man who called himself Raheem at a Tara Boulevard Citgo gas station last Thursday.

The two talked and she gave him her phone number.

Saturday morning she said he showed up unannounced at her home and wanted to take her out. She refused but allowed him to come in and used the restroom.

The victim said that's when he began attacking her and didn't stop until sometime Saturday evening.

"He squeezed me until I blacked out. Then he'd throw me like body slammed me on the floor, like his preference was my head hitting the floor. Then once I came back to, he'd do it again," she said. "He tried to tie me up, punching me, kicking me."

Lovejoy Police Sgt. Michael Gaddis said when investigators arrived Sunday, there was blood everywhere in the woman's house. Furniture was broken from where the attacker had smashed tables upside the woman's head.

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The man also apparently heated up some grits at one point and tried to burn her by throwing them at her.

The victim said at one point he forced her into the bathtub and said he was going to drown her.

Gaddis also has a frying pan in evidence that has a huge hole in the bottom of it. Police believe it cracked after being used as a weapon against the woman's head several times.

The victim says she blacked out at least 20 times during the attack and the man would wait until she woke up and then begin hurting her again.

"Tears started and he was now you wanna cry? Now you wanna cry? Well you know there ain't no sense in you crying because I'm going to kill you, you know I'm not leaving without you being dead?" The victim said the man told her.

She said she finally woke up sometime Saturday night and he was gone. She doesn't know what time it was but that it was dark. Her phones were all stolen so she said she waited by the front door until daylight then went to a neighbor's house for help.

Gaddis said they are now focusing on the sketch as a way to identify the suspect.

"I think he's done this several times before. He seemed like he didn't have a conscious about anything," Gaddis said.

The victim's 2005 Blue Toyota Corolla is still missing. It has a Georgia Tag of AGI-7082.

The sketch shows the suspect with some very unusual tattoos. One is of "NY," as in New York, on one side of his neck and two tear drops coming out of his right eye.

Police said the victim also believes he had the name Mary Butler tattooed on his left forearm.

Police ask anyone with information to call Lovejoy Police at 678-610-9748.