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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Woman Raped, Bound,Left In Woods Stevens County Victim Abducted While Asleep In Truck

Brian Coddington Staff Writer

A Stevens County woman abducted at knife-point from a north Spokane grocery store early Wednesday was beaten, robbed, raped and left bound under a pile of brush in the Valley.

The 49-year-old woman was asleep in her truck behind the Albertsons store on Hastings Road when she was abducted about 6 a.m. Wednesday by a man carrying two large hunting knives, said sheriff’s deputy Dave Skogen.

After picking up another woman near the store, the victim was forced to drive to an unknown northeast Spokane location, where she was raped, said Lt. John Simmons.

The second woman, who also was threatened with a knife, ran from the truck when it stopped, said Lt. David Wiyrick. She was not harmed.

Deputies are uncertain exactly when the second woman got out of the truck and whether she knows the man. She appears to have gotten into the truck willingly, Wiyrick said.

The man drove the rape victim to a wooded area near the Valley’s Beacon Hill, deputies said. There, he blindfolded her and left her tied and taped to a tree, Simmons said.

She managed to free herself after her attacker had left and then ran to a nearby house. The homeowner called deputies.

The woman was taken to Deaconess Medical Center, where she was treated and released, Wiyrick said.

Deputies were looking for the woman’s silver 1992 Ford F-150 pickup late Wednesday. The man stole the truck and took an undisclosed amount of money after leaving the woman in the woods, Wiyrick said.

The woman knocked at Roy Hash’s door in the 5200 block of east Valley Springs Road about 8:30 a.m. She had a cut on her hand, a bloody nose and a bruise on her chin, Hash said.

“She still had a bunch of duct tape wrapped around her neck and upper torso,” he said.

Deputies searched the woods around Hash’s Beacon Hill home for more than two hours before they found the spot where the woman had been left.

Blood spotted the pine needles at the base of two tall pine trees several hundred yards from Valley Springs Road. A tangle of green speaker wire was looped several times around the base of one of the trees.

Two feet away, several feet of duct tape hung from another tree trunk. Two pieces of cloth with a print of an Indian in a headdress also lay at the base of the tree. They were tied together.

Sunglasses with duct tape over the lenses also were found next to the tree.

A large piece of brush had been leaned against the two trees, covering the debris.

“I haven’t dealt with very many (rapes) where the victim has been tied up and left,” Skogen said.

The woman told deputies she grew tired on her way home from work and decided to stop behind the grocery store. The man disturbed her once before returning a few minutes later with the knives.

The two struggled for control of the weapons, and the woman was cut on the hand. She tried to run from the man, but was dragged back to the truck by her hair, Wiyrick said.

The attacker was described as white with a full beard, about 5 feet 8 inches tall with a medium build. He had red and black tattoos on his forearms and was wearing biker boots, black pants, a black jacket and a blue shirt.

, DataTimes