Neighbor: NY rape suspect scared W.Va. women

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Mitchell, 42, served eight years in a Virginia prison for the 2003 abduction of an ex-girlfriend and got out last year. Records show he violated probation three times, then apparently fled to New York, where police say he attacked a 73-year-old bird-watcher in Central Park near a memorial to peace-loving John Lennon.

In Jenkinjones, a coalfields town of fewer than 300, a man well-acquainted with both Mitchell and some of his alleged victims said it's best if New York locks him up for good. He said when word spread of Mitchell's release last year, people started buying guns. "They ain't gonna trust him down here again. They're gonna end up killing him," said Wayne Mitchell, 45, no relation to the suspect.

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Mitchell was acquitted but he was arrested again a few months later, charged with raping another Jenkinjones resident in her 70s and stealing her gun. Prosecutors dropped the sexual assault charge under a plea deal.

In 2002, Barbara Flake, 54, went missing, and some suspected Mitchell. State Police Sgt. C.F. Kane said investigators considered Mitchell a person of interest, but they lacked evidence to charge him.

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