The family of a UCSB freshman who authorities say was strangled and sexually assaulted inside university housing late Saturday pleaded on Thursday for students and the wider public to help find her attacker—before the school year ends next month and memories fade.
The family, through its attorney, also urged UCSB Chancellor Dennis Assanis to request the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office take over the investigation, alleging the UCSB Police Department lacks necessary resources and has an inherent conflict of interest in the case.
“The suspect is still at large. The community is still in danger,” said Tyrone Maho, during a press conference in Isla Vista outside a rear entrance to the Tropicana Gardens dormitory, the building where the assault reportedly occurred.
“If you know something, please come forward,” Maho said, providing a timeline of events that began at a nearby Sigma Pi fraternity party. He stressed that some potential witnesses might not even realize they have valuable information on their phones or social media feeds. “We’re hoping that someone has a picture, a video.”
In addition, Maho questioned why Chancellor Assanis hadn’t spoken or attempted to speak with him or the family, despite Maho making what he described as multiple attempts to make contact starting Tuesday. Maho said he did receive a response from campus counsel.
“Our Santa Barbara County sheriff’s department is much bigger than UCPD and has the resources and staffing to to help,” Maho said. “The resources available at our Santa Barbara sheriff’s department are crucial. . . Most of Isla Vista is in their jurisdiction, including the fraternity where we believe the person (the perpetrator) may have been prior to coming to the Tropicana.
“I do believe UCSB Police has a conflict of interest. I believe their duty of loyalty is to the (UC) Regents and the university,” he said. “I do believe they truly want to find this person. . . We’re just asking that they get assistance.”
UCSB responds
Although the Tropicana is not contiguous with what people generally consider the UCSB campus, it’s a University of California property and therefore policed by UC law enforcement.
UCSB spokesperson Kiki Reyes said Thursday that campus officials would not discuss specifics of the case.
“Federal law and university policy prevent us,” she said in a statement to the News-Press, adding that “the campus has robust resources that are available to support survivors of sexual violence.
“UCPD has been in direct contact with the survivor’s family from the early stages of the investigation,” Reyes said. “The campus has been contacted by an attorney purportedly representing the student and their family, and the campus has responded to the attorney on multiple occasions.
“UCPD, like other law enforcement agencies, works closely with the Sheriff’s Office and the Santa Barbara District Attorney’s Office as appropriate,” she said. “The incident is currently under active investigation.”
A timeline of events
Joined by private investigator Michael Claytor, a former Santa Barbara Police Department detective, Maho provided a three-part timeline of the woman’s whereabouts before, during and after the assault.
The woman, 18, attended a party from 9:06 p.m. to 10:06 p.m at Sigma Pi on Embarcadero Del Mar, Maho said.
From 10:06 to 10:36, she was in the area of Embarcadero del Mar and Cervantes Road, he said.
From 10:36 to 11:05, she was at the Tropicana, where the assault occurred before she fled the attacker and placed a call to 911, he said.
“Eleven o’ five is when the 911 call was made,” Maho said.
That timing appeared to contradict an earlier report. UCSB in an alert sent to students and staff on Sunday said the assault occurred about an hour prior to the 911 call.
“The suspect and survivor met earlier in the evening at a party in Isla Vista and were otherwise unknown to one another,” according to the alert.
Not her dormitory
Pressed to share more about the sequence of events, Maho and Claytor said they were reluctant to reveal too much because they didn’t want to interfere with the ongoing investigation.
The pair did, however, provide some additional information.
The woman does not reside at the Tropicana, Claytor told the News-Press.
The woman told authorities she believed she had traveled through the building’s rear access point located along Cervantes, Maho said.
The Tropicana building where the assault occurred is solely for UCSB students, Claytor said.
“They have another one that’s for (Santa Barbara) City College students,” he said. “What I’ve been told is that the doors are locked at 8:30, which requires a key card to enter into the property, so it should only be a resident or somebody accompanying that resident who enters after 8:30 p.m.”
Asked if it was possible the perpetrator lived at the building, Claytor said it was possible but he didn’t know.
Maho said the woman provided investigators with a description of the attacker to the best of her ability.
He described her as traumatized.
“As any survivor of a violent sexual assault would be,” Maho said. “I think it’s going to take a lot of time. That’s all I’ll say right now.”
The Santa Barbara-based Maho, a personal injury lawyer, also represents the family of UCSB a student who died in 2025 after falling from three stories from the San Rafael Hall dormitory. Liz Hamel, a freshman, was 18.
Anyone with information about the Saturday assault or events leading up to it can contact the UCSB Police at (805) 893-3346.
