First at Five, June 30, 2008

RICHMOND COUNTY, Ga.---44-year-old Anthony Holden is now a wanted man on the run, accused of assaulting his own roommate. News 12 learns this is not his first run-in with the law.

Investigators say he attacked his roommate at their apartment on Ellis Street, assaulting her for twelve full hours.

"We want to make sure he's brought into custody. I mean he's gonna have to answer for what he did," said Lt. Scott Peebles of the Richmond County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies accuse him of pouring boiling hot water on the roommate and stabbing her several times. They say Holden then taped her wrists together and forced her to perform sex acts at knife point.

Deputies say over the next few hours he sodomized her while she was in and out of consciousness. Deputies are hoping to figure out why.

"What caused this incident, what brought this on in his head," said Lt. Peebles.

Deputies say Holden has a violent history. He was arrested in 2001. They say he threatened to kill his girlfriend's daughter with a knife then burned her with a curling iron.

In 2003, a judge sentenced him to a year probation for assaulting a former roommate at apartments at 1002 Greene Street. Investigators say he pulled some of her hair out, punched her in the face, and pulled a knife.

Now in the parking lot of the same apartments, deputies found a clue for this latest case: his car. They're searching it for blood evidence and any clues to help them find where he is.

One neighbor hopes he'll come to his senses before they find him.

Just take his butt to 401 and have him turn himself in," said Anthony Graves.

But unless that happens...Deputies will keep searching...Hoping he won't strike again.

Deputies say Holden has family in Newberry and Sumter, South Carolina. They have told authorities there to keep an eye out for him in case he has left the Richmond County area.

As for the victim in this weekend's assault, she is now out of the hospital.