A Sudbury-area woman said she narrowly escaped a vicious roadside attack from an unidentified man near Sturgeon Falls last week.
Netasha, who spoke to The Sudbury Star on condition that only her first name be used, said she was driving near Sturgeon Falls on the way to North Bay on Feb. 1 around 7:30 p.m. when a man stepped on to the highway and waved her down.
“I thought, ‘I’ll pull over and see what’s going on’,” said Netasha, who remembered the story of a family stranded by the roadside and wanted to help the man.
“My first thought was that family a few weeks back that almost froze to death, because it was so cold out. It was freezing.
“I pulled over in front of his car and I stepped out and said, ‘Do you need a phone?’ I was trying to talk to him, but he wasn’t really paying attention.”
Supplied photo'Netasha'
Netasha said she walked closer to the man’s car, then turned and glanced at the highway to make sure no cars were coming — and that was when the man attacked.
“He doubled a string around my neck, a cord, and started to pull tighter and tighter,” she recalled. “The more I resisted, the more he pulled.
“It was a few minutes of that, at least. I couldn’t really tell you how long, but I guess because I was fighting, he kept losing traction and I guess he wasn’t that strong, to make sure that I passed out or whatever would happen. I could still breathe enough that I kept moving, so every time I jerked, it would lose the tightness, so I could breathe a little bit more.”
That’s when the man started to hit her, Netasha said, but she avoided the worst of the blows and finally saw the headlights of an approaching vehicle, reflecting off the back of her car.
“When the headlights started coming closer, he realized he wasn’t going to be able to get me in his car, so I think he panicked a little bit,” Netasha said. “When he eased up, I just kind of pushed off and ran to my car and drove.”
She kept driving until she reached North Bay, where her best friend was waiting.
“I didn’t stop. I didn’t think. I just kept going, because I wanted to make sure he wasn’t following. I wasn’t sure if his car even started, because there was no lights on, and to be honest, I was more nervous, because I didn’t know what he looked like. He was wearing a black hoodie and he had his hood on over his head. I don’t even know what colour this man is. I know he’s a bit taller than me, average build, was wearing black shoes. It was an older car, nothing that stood out. I really don’t know much and I just felt like an idiot, because I had put myself in that situation.”
Because she had so few details to describe her attacker or his vehicle, Netasha said, she did not report the incident to police.
She was concerned that someone else might be attacked, however, and posted a warning to Facebook, which she has since deleted.
It kind of makes me anxious. He knows what my car looks like and what I look like and that part bothers me
An acquaintance noticed Netasha’s post and made her own, however, complete with a photo of the marks on her face and neck, along with several other details. The post included inaccurate information, Netasha said, along with other details that could identify her, including the community near Sudbury where she lives, but when she asked the acquaintance to remove the post, she was rebuffed.
The post had been shared more than 900 times as of Thursday. Attempts to contact the woman who made the post via Facebook have been unsuccessful.
“It kind of makes me anxious,” Netasha said. “He knows what my car looks like and what I look like and that part bothers me.
“Other than that, I think I’m handling it pretty well. There has been a lot of questions and a lot of strangers approaching me, because they can recognize me from the post, but other than that it has just been back to the grind, I guess.”
Contacted Thursday, an OPP spokesperson from regional headquarters in North Bay said she was not aware of the incident, and thus could not comment on or verify any details of Netasha’s story.
Greater Sudbury Police officers have seen the Facebook post, according to Staff Sgt. Marc Brunette.
Though the alleged attack happened in OPP jurisdiction, Brunette said, Sudbury police encourage anyone with information to come forward.
“Whoever is armed with evidence or is a witness should come forward so we have a starting point,” Brunette said. “If it’s determined that it occurred outside of our area, what we’ll do is depending on what type of file it is, we’ll do the initial and then pass it off to the neighbouring jurisdiction, or sometimes we’ll just pass off the entire file, but amongst police agencies we will communicate and share information that way.”
While she has not reported the incident, Netasha said she’s willing to speak with police and will help them in any investigation.
“If they want to talk with me, that’s fine,” she said. “To be honest, I was not in a good place that night and it took me a couple of days, because I was off work and I looked pretty horrible, so I was just trying to stay low and process what happened to me, but I would definitely talk to the police, of course. It’s against my nature to do such opposite things, but I’m not sure where I was at.”
bleeson@postmedia.com
Twitter: @ben_leeson