Suspected Fairview Park rapist is dead

Noaki Schwartz

SANTA ANA -- The Huntington Beach man suspected of raping a local woman

in Fairview Park hung himself to death in his jail cell Thursday morning.

At 11 a.m., jail staff found Calvin William Cunningham III hanging in his

single-man cell at the Orange County Jail. Efforts to revive him failed.

Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Rich Paddock would not

say how the inmate hung himself or how common suicides are at Orange

County Jail.

Cunningham, 24, was charged Wednesday with two felony counts of rape

after DNA testing tied him to the Costa Mesa crime and the rape of a

16-year-old girl in Westminster. He was already in custody on other

sex-related charges when the rape charges were filed.

In addition to these crimes, Cunningham also was suspected of at least

six indecent exposure cases that occurred this year on Costa Mesa’s West

Side.

One of the rapes occurred on the morning of Feb. 22 when a 36-year-old

woman in Fairview Park was attacked while walking on Placentia Avenue.

She was pulled into some tall grass and choked as the assailant raped

her.

The incident sent shock waves through the community, as Fairview Park is

regarded as relatively safe.

The Westminster case, which occurred July 3, had similar circumstances.

The girl was walking home when she was dragged behind a wall and raped.

Although police noticed similarities in each case, it was not until local

women identified Cunningham as the man who had exposed himself to them

that investigators got closer to solving the crimes.

After Cunningham was arrested, police submitted a DNA sample from him to

the Orange County Sheriff’s laboratory. The test results linked him to

the rapes.

Cunningham had appeared in a West Justice Center courtroom on Wednesday,

where his arraignment was postponed until Dec. 29.

It was just a day after this appearance that Cunningham hung himself.

Paramedics transported him to St. Joseph Hospital in Orange County, where

he eventually died, authorities said.

The Orange County District Attorney’s Office is conducting the

investigation on Cunningham’s death.

Cunningham is survived by a wife and two children.