MURRYSVILLE, Pa. — Police responded to an attempted rape along Westmoreland Heritage Trail just before 3 p.m. Tuesday.
One man told Channel 11 he heard the attack from his front porch.
“I could tell it wasn’t for me. It was a deeper, more authoritative-like yelling,” said Jason Sturn, who lives along the trail.
What Sturn heard was an attack. Police say a 24-year-old woman was walking along the Westmoreland Heritage Trail in Murrysville with her dog when a man she didn’t know, later identified as Colton Stennett, started walking towards her.
“As he approached her, he was groping himself through his clothing,” Murrysville Police Chief Tom Kusinsky said. “And when he approached her, he grabbed her and tried to assault her.”
Police say Stennett then began to pull down her clothing and tackled her to the ground. She was eventually able to fight back by biting Stennett in the ribs and kicking him. Stennett ran into the woods, and a man passing on his bike called 911.
Police quickly responded to help the woman, and also went a half mile down the trail in hopes of catching Stennett.
Chief Kusinsky, along with another officer, parked by the Franklin Township Sewage plant where they eventually caught Stennett on foot.
People on the trail are shocked.
“There’s just so many people that I can’t believe this happened,” Sturn said, who can see the trail from his front door. “I have an 11-year-old daughter who we tell to come down here, and I don’t want to have to prepare her or give her mace to come down here.”
“I used to run on the trail every single day by myself,” Amanda Moore said, who bikes weekly on the trail. “I think women have that danger in a lot of places. It’s sad that it happens here where you’re just out exercising and you’d like to feel safe.’
Chief Kusinsky stresses this was an isolated incident.
“But like I said, there could be bad people everywhere. It’s not a regular occurrence, and it is a safe trail. The biggest thing is being hypervigilant,” he said.
Stennett is now charged with attempted rape and was denied bail.
The Murrysville Police Department is also training 10 officers who will soon be able to patrol the trail on bikes throughout regular hours.
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