Cops: Naked Woman Found in Downtown Disney Was Possibly Raped
At about 5 a.m. last Thursday, a woman was discovered naked in the bushes behind the House of Blues in Downtown Disney in Orlando. She had no recollection of how she got there, and police found her clothing, her purse, and a used condom nearby.
According to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the woman said she drank “two bottles of ale and seven or eight shots of vodka” with at least one friend at her apartment before arriving at Downtown Disney.
“She remembers being at the House of Blues and dancing, but not leaving,” the sheriff’s report says, according to the Orlando Sentinel. “The victim said she currently has no memory of who might have taken advantage of her [and] left her naked and helpless in the shrubbery.
Early the next morning, Disney security officers found the woman, who they described as “disoriented,” in the bushes behind House of Blues and Cirque du Soleil. One of the guards gave the woman his vest and called the local fire department for a paramedic.
The woman did not know the whereabouts of her friend or when they became separated, records show. Detectives have interviewed her friend since the incident but are not releasing any other details.
Late Tuesday night, the Sheriff’s Office released one sentence about a sexual battery “in the early morning hours of July 16, 2015 near Lake Buena Vista” along with surveillance photos of a person of interest. Officials would not release any more details Tuesday night.
On Wednesday, Watrel said the three surveillance photographs released show a man, described as a suspect in the possible rape, as he left the House of Blues that morning.
The full report was not released until yesterday afternoon, almost a week after the suspected rape occurred.
“Our detectives worked this case vigorously until they felt they needed the public’s help,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Jane Watrel told the Sentinel. “Sometimes they want to hold things close to the vest so they can proceed with the investigation.”
