Survivor wants convicted child rapist in prison for life

Brown has spent more than 25 years behind prison walls in Chino, California, and that's where law enforcement wants him to stay.

Now, in a Crime Watch Daily alert, this serial child rapist could be released any day, and could be living right next door to children. But one brave young woman may hold the key that can keep this animal in his cage for good.

Nimol San was just a young child when her innocence was violently stripped away by Lawrence Brown. Nimol has never talked about her terror on television before, but she wants anybody that has the authority to let Brown out of prison to hear her story.

Nimol San was 7 years old, walking alone in Santa Ana, Calif., in October 1983, when, just a few blocks from school, she noticed an unusual van. But by the time little Nimol heard the passenger side door creak open, it was too late to run. Tragically, no one heard her cries for help.

Nimol says Brown then drove her to a vacant parking lot and put a knife to her throat. What happened next inside that van to little Nimol is heartbreaking to hear, but she wants people to know the evil of Lawrence Brown. After hours of torture, Brown tells Nimol to get dressed, then uses his shoe to kick her out of that van.

Nimol was too young to understand the beastly things Brown had done to her, so detectives used anatomically correct dolls to find out the gut-wrenching details.

Since Nimol was so precise describing the vicious attack, detectives began to wonder if this tiny 7-year-old could actually help them catch the animal who did this to her. Nimol stunned detectives: she remembered every single sickening detail.

Nimol San was just one of the victims of the dangerous predator who trolled the streets of California looking for and attacking little girls.

Brown could soon be walking the streets again as a free man.

As detectives launched a massive manhunt after Nimol's 1983 attack, they send Nimol's description of her attacker and her drawing of his red van to authorities in five surrounding counties.

They immediately get a call from a nearby county, but the news is worse than they thought. Cops don't find the attacker, they find another victim.

"About five months prior to the crime against Nimol, he had he had done this to another young girl," said Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas.

That little girl, still known to this day known as "Jane Doe," was just 8 years old at the time.

After months of searching apartment complex parking lots and canvassing the streets of Santa Ana, the determined detectives find themselves staring right at the red van Nimol San had so vividly described. Cops photograph the bushy-haired man behind the wheel, then ask Nimol to pick him out of a photo lineup, which she did.

Lawrence Brown was convicted of five counts of forcible sex crimes against a child. Brown was sentenced to 49 years behind bars at Chino State Prison, a sentence Rackauckas feels was far too light for the terrible things this animal had done to little girls.

"When you look and you see what happened to these victims, it should be sufficient to keep him for life," said Rackauckas.

After 25 years Lawrence Brown was released early for good behavior. And he's staying just down the street from an elementary school. Then terror hits: Brown disables his ankle-bracelet GPS monitor, and cops can't find him. After 10 days on the loose, cops catch Brown and throw him back in prison.

Parents breathe a sigh of relief, but not for long. Just six months later Brown's out again. The prison warden set him free. District Attorney Rackauckas holds a press conference warning parents to be on the lookout for Lawrence Brown.

This time Brown barely makes it out of the prison parking lot before he's re-arrested on another parole violation, for riding in a car with a female person. A woman drove Brown out of the prison, where he was arrested.

For now Lawrence Brown remains behind bars. The D.A.'s office has petitioned to have him held permanently in a prison mental hospital as a sexually violent predator.

"In my view he should never be released from custody," said Rackauckas.