The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department did not notify the public after a female runner was sexually assaulted by a stranger on the Monon Trail on Aug. 8 because investigators believed it to be an "isolated incident," a department spokesperson told IndyStar.

What's less clear is why the public wasn't notified after another woman was attacked days later, on Aug. 14, while running on the same section of the 26-mile-long trail.

Investigators quickly connected the brutal attacks.

"It was on August 14th, when Sex Crimes detectives noticed similarities between the two Monon Trail investigations, that the detectives believed the incidents to be connected and committed by the same suspect," an IMPD spokesperson wrote. Related: Man arrested in violent Monon Trail attacks of women was

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