Cops seek torturer of Ivy League grad student

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NEW YORK (AP) -- It was an ordeal that lasted 19 hours. In
that span, a man bound a Columbia University graduate student in her
apartment, raped her, doused her with hot water and bleach, slit her
eyelids and finally set a fire before fleeing, police said.

Police
pressed a manhunt for the assailant in the April 13 attack, with
investigators hoping any surviving DNA and a $12,000 reward for
information leading to an arrest would produce fresh leads.

The victim, who managed to free herself before the fire spread, was still in the hospital Thursday, police said.

The
woman was nearing her degree at the Graduate School of Journalism when
the attack occurred at her apartment more than 20 blocks north of the
Ivy League campus in upper Manhattan, classmates have said. Dozens paid
tribute to her Monday with a candlelight vigil.

Female students
throughout the school were rattled, especially because the attacker was
is still on the loose, said Lindsay Miller, 23, an architecture student
who, like the victim, lives several blocks from the campus.

"It makes you nervous," she said. "I find I'm walking faster and looking over my shoulder."

Witnesses
told police they had spotted the attacker loitering around the victim's
building on the night of the attack. At about 9:30 p.m., he slipped
inside, got on an elevator with her and pushed a button for a different
floor than hers, police said.

He followed her out of the elevator
and pretended like he was lost, police said. Then he followed her to
her apartment door and forced his way inside, where he beat her.

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