Police are hunting for a serial predator who has been linked to four unsolved attacks on women in Phoenix and nearby Mesa, including two unsolved killings.

"We would absolutely like to find this person and get him off the streets before he has a chance to harm anyone else," Mesa police Detective Steve Berry said Monday.

The newest case to be linked to the crime spree occurred Nov. 4 when a 35-year-old woman was kidnapped, taken to an alley in central Phoenix, raped and beaten, said Phoenix police Detective Reuben Gonzales.

He said investigators believe the woman was left in the alley for dead. She survived with injuries to her head, neck and torso, Gonzales said.

Berry said DNA evidence connected the assault to the rape and killing of two women in Mesa in 2004 and in 2007, and to another rape in Mesa, a Phoenix suburb.

"We're very concerned," Berry said. "We've got a violent predator out there who abducts these women, and two of them have resulted in homicides and the other two are serious sexual assaults."

The trail began in Mesa with two slayings. The naked body of Karen Jane Campbell, 44, was found on a roadway in October 2007. The partially clothed body of Alisa Marie Beck, 21, was found in an alley in 2004 about five miles from where Campbell's body was left. Both had been strangled.

Police connected the killings in December using DNA evidence. At the time, they said both women had a history of drug abuse and prostitution, and that neither had a home.

Earlier this month, police used DNA evidence again to connect the killings to a sexual assault in which a 47-year-old woman was taken to a Mesa home in August and raped before she escaped and flagged down a cab.

Police say they would like to talk to the cab driver in the August case and anyone who either saw the woman being kidnapped in the middle of the day on a busy Mesa street or later saw her fleeing her attacker.

Berry said finding the cab driver is crucial because that person may be able to tell police the approximate area where the woman was assaulted. The woman was unable to tell detectives where the attack occurred.

Mesa and Phoenix police are combing through past cases to see if the suspect is connected to other crimes. Berry said all other agencies in the state have been notified about the attacker.

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On the Net:

Mesa police: http://www.cityofmesa.org/police/

Phoenix police: http://phoenix.gov/POLICE/index.html