Ventura County investigators recently had a breakthrough in a 2017 cold case involving a woman who was raped during a violent attack by a group of men wearing Ghostface masks from the horror movie “Scream.”
Detectives made the first arrest in the case last month, nearly a decade after the first attack, according to a news release from the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.
Ricardo Jimenez-Garcia, 39, is accused of participating in an attack that occurred about 4 a.m. on Sept. 21, 2017, in Simi Valley as the woman walked to work, prosecutors said. She told police the men were brandishing knives.
The release did not disclose what new information or developments led to the latest arrests, but the District Attorney’s Office is asking for the public’s help in providing more information about Jimenez-Garcia, the attack or anyone who may have been a similar victim.
Jimenez-Garcia faces rape and sodomy charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty, court records show.