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Falling for the charms of fugitive rapist Dean Robert Zimmerman will only bring victims closer to danger, police say.
"They may be putting themselves at risk by harbouring him. That grooming definitely is a reoccurring theme," said Det. Jason Bobrowich of the high-risk offender unit, tasked with recapturing the 44-year-old repeat rapist who is labelled a psychopath.
"He may have used his ability to manipulate people to convince somebody to shelter him or provide him with money and a ride."
That's just what Zimmerman did when his most recent rape victim welcomed him into her Edmonton home when he was down on his luck in 2005.
Two weeks after meeting him, the woman bought her boyfriend's out-of-work buddy a tin of his favourite Tim Hortons coffee so he'd have a present under their Christmas tree.
Zimmerman repaid her a week later by punching her in the face and raping her "in every way a woman can be raped," said the victim, who cannot be identified.
Police are releasing photos showing Zimmerman's tattoos, in the hopes someone will spot him before he strikes again.
Even the FBI and U.S. Marshals have been alerted to the Canada-wide warrants for Zimmmerman, who went underground less than two weeks after being released from prison with conditions to check in with police.
Any comfort his victims had from Zimmerman's 40-month prison sentence has vanished, now he's on the run, she says.
"As a woman who's suffered directly at the hands of this man, I say he should have never been released. Dean Zimmerman is a danger to every woman who crosses his path. He has no sense of wrongdoing. He's a demon. He's evil, cruel, and feels nothing. He has no remorse at all," the woman said.
During an attack that lasted nine hours, she was bound with a phone cord, duffel bag strap and shoelaces. She was sexually assaulted with a toilet plunger and threatened with a switchblade.
"He threatened to kill me, to sell me into the sex trade, to hurt my then-one-year-old little boy. He threatened me with a knife, violated me in disgusting and heinous ways. The words sexual assault with a weapon do not convey what this monster did to me," she said.
"They've been saying all along he's dangerous, psychotic, and has a serious problem. He's going to reoffend."
Zimmerman was convicted of sexual assault with a weapon and forcible confinement for the 2005 incident. He spent four years in jail.
A chilling portrait of the repeat sex attacker who refused treatment is beginning to emerge.
The same man who admitted a "deeply rooted hostility towards women" was married to three at the same time, and has at least two children, the Calgary Herald has learned.
A B.C. court was told Zimmerman's first and second wives both complained of physical and emotional abuse. His first wife of six years fled to Toronto with the couple's two children. His second marriage ended after four months.
He was jailed in 2001 after terrorizing his pregnant wife and breaking her nose during a two-day assault at a secluded campsite near Mission, B.C.
A B.C. Supreme Court judge ordered that any future women Zimmerman wanted to live with or marry must be told about his criminal background.
Zimmerman, who was born in Calgary, says he grew up in an abusive home, according to court documents.
In his teens, he was sent to a juvenile correction centre, where he says he was sexually assaulted and abused.
Investigators say they're hoping Zimmerman will be spotted at truck stop restrooms, rooming houses, hostels or other communal showers, and be recognized by his arm, stomach and back tattoos.
"We would not put it beyond him to have already buried himself in a location, becoming transient," said Bobrowich.
"It concerns us that he's still at large, the potential stress that he's under may still lead him to offend in a sexually violent manner."
Zimmerman's victim says despite claims he had been "trained to kill a man bare-handed when he was in the military," she had no idea he had a violent past.
"Dean seemed completely normal, just a guy down on his luck while he looked for work. We offered to let him stay with us, and try to help him find a job. That's how he came to be living in my home," she said.
Her horror began at the end of her waitressing shift on New Year's Day, 2005. Zimmerman offered to pick her up, saving her a 45-minute bus ride.
With two other female roommates out and her long-haul trucker boyfriend away for a few days, the woman found herself alone with Zimmerman.
"I went to my room to relax, eat a bite of dinner, and he followed me into my bedroom and told me to take my clothes off. I was scared, right away. I said no," she said.
"Half a second later, the left side of my face exploded in pain. I saw black, tiny stars flying everywhere, and my room was crooked. He'd punched me in the face, splitting open my eyebrow. I had blood all over my face," she said. The injury has left a scar on the left side of her face.
During the agonizing hours of her attack, the woman says she feared her roommates would return home and also be in danger.
"One spent the night at a friend's, and the other had car trouble and was stuck waiting for a tow truck to get her car out of the ditch. They don't know how lucky they were, because Dean had plans for them, too. I listened the entire night, both praying and dreading the sound of a car in the driveway."
In court, Zimmerman showed no remorse, she said.
Now that he's back on the streets, the woman says she's terrified he'll hurt someone.
"There isn't anything we can do to make ourselves safe from this monster. We can't even make this man apologize, admit what he did was wrong. And yet, they've released him to the public again."
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