IDLEDALE, Colo. — A man grabbed and tried to drag a 16-year-old girl who was jogging in a park before she was able to get away and notify a deputy, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said Friday.
The incident happened about 2:35 p.m. Thursday at Little Park when the girl said the man tried to engage her in conversation.
“He simply asked for help to start with and then he said, ‘I’d like for you to come with me. I want you to come with me,'” Said Jacki Kelly, Spokesperson for the Jeffco Sheriff’s Office. “Of course, she said, ‘No.’ That’s when he grabbed on to her and started to pull her.”
After the girl got away from the man’s grip and ran away, she flagged down a deputy near the small town of Idledale in Bear Creek Canyon between Morrison and Evergreen.
“From what the police were saying, she must have been running down here screaming,” said Janet Golden, who lives a few hundred feet from the parking lot of Little Park. “I didn’t hear a thing.”
Golden says she was working along the creek behind her home when deputies arrived. She says the park, which contains a series of inter-connected trails, is a popular place for hiking and running.
“For something like this to happen. It puts you on edge now,” Golden said.
Kelly says the girl was not injured but was extremely frightened.
“She’s beyond shaken up,” Kelly said. “She did probably the very right thing, which was fight back. She was very loud and I think that probably scared him.”
Kelly says a large search effort, including bloodhounds, attempted to track down the man on Thursday, but they couldn’t find him.
“That was a wake-up call for a lot of people in the neighborhood now,” Golden said. “I think they’re going to be a little more cautious going in there.”
The girl was able to give a description of the suspect to an artist, who made a composite sketch.
The suspect is described as a white or Hispanic man, 25 to 35 years old, 5-foot-10 and weighing 150 pounds. He had short black hair and was wearing black sweat pants, a gray hoodie, white shoes and dark sunglasses.
Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff’s office tip line at 303-271-5612 or Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867.
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