JASPER COUNTY, INDIANA — An intense manhunt for a South Bend man accused of abducting a Mishawaka woman earlier this week has been called off after nearly 12 hours of searching. But police and U.S. Marshals say they're still following up on several new leads.

The new leads follow what Jasper County police are calling an attempted carjacking that also included aggravated battery and intimidation just after 9:15am Friday in Rensselaer, about 40 miles south of Gary.

Jasper County Sheriff Orville Perry confirmed to WSBT that officers are searching for Michael Lindsey, 48, as a suspect in the case.

Perry says a woman was walking toward her car in a McDonald's restaurant parking lot near State Road 114 and Interstate 65, when a man approached her.

"He told her to move over, and said 'I want the car.' Then, he hit her and said 'Give me the car, or I'll kill you," said Sheriff Perry.

Perry says the woman then screamed, and the suspect ran off.

An intense manhunt involving Jasper County Police, Rensselaer Police, and Indiana State Police was underway just a few minutes later.

A K-9 unit was able to track the suspect to an overpass on the west side of the I-65 interchange at State Road 114, but the dogs lost the suspect's scent in a nearby wooded area.

The victim later identified Lindsey as her attacker, though she said he is now clean-shaven and missing the goatee shown in the mugshot police are now circulating.

Mishawaka Police have also now confirmed to WSBT that Lindsey is a no longer a "person of interest" but a suspect in the attempted abduction of a woman from the parking lot in front of the Hobby Lobby store on Grape Road, another attempted abduction at Town and Country shopping center on McKinley Road, and the successful abduction of a 19-year-old woman from the 600 block of Edison Road.

Each of those cases happened on Tuesday.

Mishawaka Police say they now believe Lindsey drove the woman from Mishawaka to a rural area of White County near Lafayette, then let her go, ditched the car, and disappeared.

"There is a distance of less than 20 miles from where the vehicle was last dropped off to where this McDonald's is," said Mishawaka Police Department Assistant Chief Mike Samp.

Chief Samp also says he's concerned that Lindsey may be growing more brazen with each new attack.

"He's used a knife to force--or try to force--his way into the vehicles. Would he harm someone? My guess is yes. Especially if he didn't get what he was looking for or things didn't go his way," Samp said.

Court documents paint a troubling picture of Lindsey's past.

Lindsay was released from prison in July of 2008 after serving 26 years for two counts of rape and child molestation in Elkhart County.

According to court records obtained by The South Bend Tribune, Lindsey was convicted of abducting a woman from 6th Street in Elkhart on June 24, 1982, and raping her in two separate locations.

Lindsey was also convicted of child molestation in connection with the July 23, 1981 sexual assault of the 13-year-old girl. Court documents obtained by the Tribune show the girl was riding her bicycle along a path near her home when Lindsey grabbed her, told her to be quiet and took her to a secluded area where he molested her while holding a knife to her throat.

WSBT archives from 1982 show police suspected Lindsey in other sexual assault cases too.

He was charged in 5 sexually crimes in Elkhart County between 1981 and 1982, including the alleged rape and abduction of a South Bend woman from a parking lot at knife-point.

All charges in the other cases were eventually dropped.

WSBT spoke with then Elkhart Police Chief Bill Wargo during the investigation in 1982.

"We believe Michael Lindsey is considered a suspect in at least 20 local rape cases," he told WSBT at the time.

Lindsey was sentenced to serve 50 years for the child molestation conviction and 30 years for the rape conviction, but a judge allowed the sentences to be served simultaneously.

With time served for good behavior, Lindsey was released from prison 7 months ago.

He is currently listed on Indiana's sex offender registry as a "sex predator" with a required lifetime notification, and was added to the Indiana Department of Corrections "Most Wanted" list on Wednesday for failure to comply with the terms of his parole.

Chief Samp calls the timeline a "disturbing pattern."

"Usually people's natural tendencies and traits show up again and again and again," he said. "I served as a sex offense investigator, and the experts will tell you that rape isn't about lust or attraction as much as it's about power and control. And part of power and control is violence."

His focus now is on taking that power away, and stopping the next attack before it starts.

"We're doing everything we possibly can to work with [law enforcement and the U.S. Marshal's Office] to bring this to a successful closure," Samp said.

Lindsey should be considered armed and dangerous. Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call local law enforcement.