SEQUIM — Authorities are hoping a distinctive knife they found at the scene of a foiled assault on a 22-year-old woman on Olympic Discovery Trail will lead to the capture of the masked culprit.
The assailant, about 6 feet tall and 200 pounds, was wearing baggy pants, a gray or charcoal-colored hooded sweatshirt — and a Halloween mask — when he attacked the woman, who was riding her bicycle around 8:30 a.m. Saturday.
The woman, about 5-feet-8 and 135 pounds, was knocked to the ground but fought off the attacker by kicking at him and screaming before he gave up and ran to his car, authorities said.
“The biggest clue in this thing is the knife,” Clallam County Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Lyman Moores said Monday.
“It’s such a unique knife that someone may say, ‘I saw this guy with it,’ or know someone who did,” Moores said.
“It may help put us in the right direction.”
Moores also is looking for more information about a white van that is at least 10 years old that was seen leaving a parking lot west of Railroad Bridge Park by East Runnion Road right after the assailant left the parking lot in a faded 1980s or 1990s blue or gray Honda-style car.
“It was definitely a white van that followed the car out,” Moores said.
“The van very well could have been part of this. If anybody saw the van or that car or was in the area at 8:30 [Saturday morning], we’d love to talk to them.”
The woman was riding her bike and passing her assailant when he turned around while donned in a white and red Halloween mask and attacked her, Moore said.
Anyone with information about the assault is asked to phone Detective Tom Reyes at 360-417-2372.
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
