JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A rash of crime in a Northside neighborhood has many people in the area living with some fear. The area is near the intersection of Lem Turner Road and Trout River Boulevard.
A map from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office crime mapping tool shows dozens of burglaries and robberies to homes in the area during the last year.
One of those crimes was a home invasion robbery, and police said the victim was also sexually battered.
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Although News4Jax typically doesn't identify victims of sex crimes, the woman, Heidi Suggs, wanted to go public with her story.
Suggs said her attacker hit her in the head with a hammer on her back porch in broad daylight last September and then said these chilling words:
"I could kill you right now. I could just kill you."
She said he then took her back into the house and made her go upstairs to give him her jewelry. Both went back downstairs when all she had was a wedding ring set.
Suggs tried to escape out the front door but was tackled.
"I had accepted the fact that I'm going to die today," Suggs said of the attack. "That I'm probably not going to make it through this. I'm probably not going to make it out of here alive."
The attacker then made Suggs perform a sex act on him. Soon, her brother came to the house with a gun after being called by a roommate in the house. The attacker took off.
Suggs said she wasn't able to give police a detailed description of the attacker because of the blow to her head, and she said investigators only got a partial DNA match.
News4Jax crime and safety analyst Gil Smith said that can make solving a case like this difficult.
"It won't necessarily nail it down. There's just not enough information to get a positive hit on one specific person," Smith said. "It may get a large group of people, but you need to nail down a certain person."
Suggs said she didn't want her identity hidden, saying she doesn't want the attacker to think she is trying to hide. But she wants him caught.
Neighbors who live in the area near the Trout River said over the past year, crime has become a huge problem.
One woman, who asked not to be identified, said her front door was recently kicked in and her home was robbed. She said it's frustrating and scary, especially because she has several young children.
"It's a nice day and for me to have to tell my kids no they can't go outside or no we can sit in the living room and let a nice breeze in with just the screen door open is very disheartening," she said.
Suggs said that her attack, along with all of the other crime around her house, has shattered her comfort in her own home.
"There's not a night that goes by that I don't go to sleep and it doesn't cross my mind, that fear that once I go to sleep I can't control what happens," Suggs said.
JSO's investigation into Suggs' case has been suspended because no new leads have come in.
Anyone with any information about any of the break-ins or crimes in the Trout River area, is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS.