LAPD Investigating Possible Abduction and Sexual Assault in Van Nuys

Police were investigating a San Fernando Valley woman's claim that she was abducted, beaten and raped Thursday night.

The woman made a 911 call from a dance studio she had broken into trying to hide from a man about 12:15 a.m. in the 7900 block of Haskell Avenue in Van Nuys, saying that she was trying to hide from a man in a pickup truck who had given her a ride, said Los Angeles police Officer Bruce Borihanh.

She told one witness she had accepted a ride with a man whose vehicle had doors that she could not open, and that he raped her and beat her before she could escape.

Borihanh said officers were leaning toward the belief that the woman was not abducted and that her injuries came from scaling a chain link fence at the dance studio.

Borihanh said the woman told officers when she ran from the man she wasn't even sure he was pursuing her.

The woman was taken to a hospital for treatment and then released, Borihanh said.

Officers were a bit dubious about her claim that she had accepted a ride, because the ride originated along an area of the Sepulveda Boulevard corridor known for prostitution, according to a law enforcement source who asked not to be identified.

Borihanh said detectives were investigating the case as a sexual assault.