UCSB rapist at large as victim’s family demands outside investigation

Authorities are searching for a man who strangled and raped an 18-year-old freshman at a UC Santa Barbara residential building last week. The attack comes a year after another freshman student at the school, Liz Hamel, died after being found unconscious under a third-floor walkway in a different residential hall on campus. The cases are not connected, but UCSB police are once again being accused of not doing enough.

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The attack occurred around 11 p.m. on Saturday, May 9, in Tropicana Gardens, a UCSB-owned, privately managed housing complex in Isla Vista, according to a campus alert and the victim’s family attorney. The student, identified only as Jane Doe, attended a party at the Sigma Pi fraternity earlier that evening, between approximately 9 and 10 p.m., before arriving at Tropicana Gardens around 10:30 p.m. The dorms are an approximate 2-minute walk from the fraternity house. Police received a 911 call roughly an hour after the attack. In its campus alert, UCSB police said the attacker and victim “met earlier in the evening at a party in Isla Vista and were otherwise, unknown to one another.” The attacker remains unidentified and at large.

Tropicana Gardens is a residential building on Cervantes Road, with residents requiring a pass for entry. According to the timeline established by investigators, both the victim and the attacker entered through the building’s back door that night, though it remains unclear whether one or both had authorized access.

The victim’s family, through their attorney Tyrone Maho, is calling on UCSB Chancellor Dennis Assanis to bring in the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office to assist in the investigation. 

“We’re pleading with the chancellor, please request the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department to help with this investigation to help apprehend this person immediately,” Maho said at a news conference outside the dorm on Thursday. “The community is not safe.” 

Maho said the family believes the UC Police Department lacks the resources to handle the case alone, though he stopped short of questioning its intentions. “I do believe they truly want to find this person, and they are doing everything they can,” he said. “We’re just asking that they get assistance from a department that’s bigger, more capable, has the resources to do so, and has the experience to do so.” Assanis has not responded to the family’s requests, according to Maho.

The victim’s identity is being protected. But Michael Claytor, a former Santa Barbara Police Department detective who is working as a private investigator for the family, said she is recovering as best she can, supported by family and close friends who have rallied around her. 

“This rape of any kind is horrible. This one was even more brutal,” he told SFGATE on Monday. “She’s a very brave young lady. She is all about holding this guy responsible, bringing him to justice, and helping keep the community safe.” He added, “This is going to be a very long-term recovery.”

The case has drawn comparisons to another case at UCSB that left a freshman student dead last year. In February 2025, 18-year-old freshman Liz Hamel was found unconscious on a sidewalk beneath a third-floor walkway at a campus residence hall, having last been seen leaving a nearby Isla Vista restaurant with an unidentified young man. She died in the hospital six days later. UCSB police ultimately ruled her death an accidental fall, a conclusion her family called “biased” and riddled with “unanswered questions.” The Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office told SFGATE in December the case was still under review. 

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The rape case is not connected, but the two families retained the same attorney and private investigator. In each case, the family has publicly accused UCSB’s campus police of lacking the resources and independence needed to properly investigate and called for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office to step in.

In a statement to SFGATE, Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Raquel Zick said the office is not leading the investigation. “UCSB PD is the primary investigating agency for this case,” Zick said. “All requests for statements about this case should be handled by them.”

UCSB spokesperson Kiki Reyes said federal law and university policy prevent the school from discussing specifics of the case. She pushed back on the suggestion that UCPD is not equipped to handle the investigation, noting that the department is POST-certified, referring to Peace Officer Standards and Training, and accredited by the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators.

“UCPD, like other law enforcement agencies, works closely with the Sheriff’s Office and the Santa Barbara District Attorney’s Office as appropriate,” Reyes said in a statement sent to SFGATE Monday. She added that the university has been in communication with the family throughout the investigation. “UCPD has been in direct contact with the survivor’s family from the early stages of the investigation,” she said, adding that the campus has “responded to the attorney on multiple occasions.”

Anyone with information is encouraged to contact UCSB police or submit an anonymous tip at 805-893-7274 or online.