Brazen intruder caught, police say

LYNNWOOD – The hooded man slipped in through an unlocked door and attacked a woman in her home.

As he closed his hand around the woman’s throat, she raked her fingers across his eyes.

The mark the woman said she left near her attacker’s left eye early Sunday morning led police to arrest a man who they suspect may be responsible for a string of break-ins in the area starting in October.

Lamar Bryce Anderson, 20, appeared briefly Tuesday in Everett District Court where he was ordered jailed in lieu of $250,000 bail.

Anderson has admitted to breaking into the Lynnwood woman’s home just before 2:30 a.m. Sunday, according to court papers.

The woman said she was accosted by an intruder when she went to investigate why her dog was barking. She told police the man fled when she gouged him in the eye.

“The defendant is a suspect in six other attacks,” Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Mark Roe told Judge Thomas Kelly during Anderson’s court appearance Tuesday.

The woman’s two children know Anderson. They said they were at a party with him a few hours before their mother was attacked, documents show.

He left the party before the attack happened, and the clothing he was wearing at the party matched the intruder’s description, Lynnwood police Cmdr. Steve Rider said.

Anderson, who lives in the neighborhood, was arrested after his fingerprints were found on a beer can outside the woman’s home. He had scratch marks near the tear duct of his left eye, court documents said.

Police said Tuesday they suspect Anderson is the man who, since October, has been slipping into bedrooms in Lynnwood where women were sleeping alone. The intruder has laid down next to some of the victims, grabbed a few, exposed himself or made lewd comments.

All of the break-ins occurred in the same area of north Lynnwood and involved a man whose description matches Anderson and the clothing he was wearing early Sunday, Roe said.

Police have feared the intruder would grow more aggressive with time.

“The last attack was the most violent of the batch,” Rider said.

Hair and fingerprints found at the other homes are being analyzed to determine whether Anderson can be linked to the other break-ins, Rider said.

The intruder entered homes through unlocked doors, according to police.

Police are asking people to make sure to lock their doors and windows at night, and to keep an eye out for suspicious people in their neighborhoods.

“We don’t want the neighborhood to let its guard down,” Lynnwood police spokeswoman Shannon Sessions said.

Reporter Scott Pesznecker: 425-339-3436 or spesznecker@heraldnet.com.