On Monday, Prince William County police announced the arrest of Brandon Charles Murdock of Royal Front, Virginia. On Oct. 6, police took possession of a room at the Wyndham Garden Hotel in Manassas. They placed a decoy, a dummy appearing to be a woman, in one of the beds and waited. According to police, Murdock entered the room and made his way over to the bed. He was then placed under arrest.
Exactly one year before, on Oct. 6, 2015, police responded to a call from the hotel in regards to a sexual assault. A 15-year-old girl, who was on a school trip from South Korea, told staff from her school that a man entered her room around 5 a.m. She said she woke up when the man was touching her body and the man then fled the room. School officials then called police.
While investigating this alleged sexual assault, police learned another student from South Korea suffered the same experience the day before. The 16-year-old girl did not tell anyone about what happened to her until the 15-year-old told disclosed what happened to her to school staff and police. The second alleged attack took place around 6:15 a.m. when she awoke to find a strange man groping her. He ran out of the room after she woke up.
Almost a year passed until another alleged sexual assault took place at the Wyndham Garden Hotel. A 63-year-old woman, who came to Virginia from overseas,reported she woke up to a strange man touching her inappropriately. She screamed and the man ran out of the room.
According to police, Murdock lived an hour away from the Wyndham Garden and had no apparent connection to the hotel. They have no idea why he kept targeting this particular location.
Jonathan Perok, a spokesman for the Prince William County police, said at this point police were willing to try anything in order to get the suspect off the street. They did not know how long the sting operation would take; days, weeks or months but they were concerned if the suspect remained at large, the offences would escalate.
Murdock has been charged with burglary and attempted sexual assault arising from the incident last week. More charges are expected in relation to the two teens and the 63-year-old woman. The 31-year-old is being held in custody without bond.
