The Madison Police Department is currently investigating a sexual assault near Capital City Trail reported early Saturday morning, according to an incident report.
A woman in her 30s was reportedly walking along the bike path near Livingston Avenue and Wilson Street when she was attacked from behind, dragged into the bushes and raped.
“The brutality, the savagery of this attack is something the likes of which typically I haven't even seen in my over 30 years of policing,” MPD Chief Mike Koval said in a Sept. 12 WKOW article. “It was only but for the grace of God that this young woman was not killed.”
After the attack, the survivor managed to crawl back to the path where a passerby found her and contacted the police almost two hours after the initial attack.
MPD is still searching for the suspect, described in the report as about 5 feet 8 inches tall with a thin build and possibly wearing shorts at the time of the attack.
Madison community members will host a march Thursday night to “Take Back the Bike Path” and show solidarity with the survivor, according to a Facebook post. Demonstrators will march down the bike path, posting anti-rape signs and stickers to denounce sexual crimes in Madison.
MPD is now treating the case as an attempted homicide, according to the WKOW article, and is asking any potential witnesses to come forward with information.
“This is a safe city, but for now, at this moment, we have someone at large, who is literally diabolical,” Koval said in the article. “And in that sense, we have to be more than ever circumspect in terms of being aware of our environment, the ways or means which we travel about our city and that these things, until we know more, are something that I want people to be vigilant about.”
At press time, calls made to MPD were unsuccessful.
