City police are searching for a man who raped an 88-year-old cancer patient in her Southeast Baltimore home about 9:30 a.m. yesterday.

Police said a man posing as a maintenance worker came to the woman's door in the 1300 block of Bethlehem Ave. near the Baltimore County line.

The woman let him into her house, and then the man forced her to have sex with him, police said.

After the attack, the man demanded money, police said, and she gave him $6. He left through the back of the house.

The woman, whom The Sun is not identifying because she was a victim of a sex crime, was taken to Mercy Medical Center for treatment. She was home recovering yesterday afternoon, according to neighbors.

Police said the suspect is between the ages of 20 and 30, about 6 feet tall and with a slim build. He was wearing a gray shirt and tan or khaki pants, police said.

Residents in the quiet Graceland Park neighborhood had seen police at the woman's house all day, but most did not know she had been raped.

"You're talking about a predator," said David Senschal, a neighbor. "That is sick."

Senschal said he heard some loud noises coming from the woman's house about 9:30 a.m. "I didn't pay it no mind," he said.

Other neighbors described the victim as a sweet woman who lives alone but has a bevy of grandchildren.

"She's gotten pretty frail in the past few years, she can hardly get around," said Carolyn Vienna, who has lived nearby since 1985. "In the spring, I saw her out in the garden."

Another neighbor said that the woman has colon cancer. Police confirmed that the victim is a cancer patient.

annie.linskey@baltsun.com