Horror averted: Affidavit says attack man carried 'rape kit'
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Matthew R. Beaulieu was arrested November 9 and charged with abduction with intent to defile.Flickr/Appleswitch; ACRJ
Police have said the young woman who fought off an assailant in an attempted abduction on Stadium Road may have saved her own life. Now, new information about a "rape kit" that police recovered from the alleged perpetrator, 26-year-old Matthew Rene Beaulieu, provides harrowing support for that contention.
Inside the red 2003 Hyundai Santa Fe that Beaulieu was driving, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in Charlottesville Circuit Court, investigators recovered handcuffs, duct tape, and a butcher's knife.
The attack occurred in the early hours of Friday morning, the 9th of November, as the victim, a 19-year-old UVA student, walked along the 2200 block of Stadium Road near Runk Dining Hall. According to the affidavit, the assailant, wearing a black mask and a hooded black Under Armour shirt, stopped his car behind her as she walked and then got out and grabbed her and attempted to handcuff her as he dragged her toward his car. In the ensuing struggle, the handcuffs dropped and the suspect fled, only to be arrested a short time later by a Charlottesville police officer who spotted a vehicle that allegedly matched the victim's description.
"The officer was in the right place at the right time," says Charlottesville Police Captain Gary Pleasants, who identifies Fifth Street exit 120 just off I-64 as the site of the arrest and says it occurred after Officer Joey Lewis pulled up alongside Beaulieu's vehicle, shone a bright side-light into the car, and saw a driver matching the description of the reported attacker.
According to the affidavit, when Lewis asked Beaulieu if he knew why he'd been pulled over, the young man conceded that "it was probably because he just attacked someone."
Expressing relief that he'd been caught, according to the affidavit, the Palmyra resident didn't stop talking.
After getting taken to the police department for further questioning, Beaulieu waived his right to have an attorney present, according to the affidavit, and talked extensively about his proclivity for watching pornography as well as past sexual experiences with bondage. He allegedly attributed the attack to anger provoked by recently getting dumped by a girlfriend.
A UVA spokesperson says that Beaulieu worked for Aramark at UVA's Runk Dining Hall, a facility which stands near the attack scene. Beaulieu reportedly told police he'd taken a butcher's knife from the kitchen before his shift ended at midnight, and then had gone out looking for a woman walking alone.
"His intentions of abducting a woman was to make her feel pain like he feels it," the affidavit reads. Beaulieu further admitted he'd planned to cover her mouth with duct tape and "slap her around a bit."
According to the affidavit, Beaulieu downplayed his intentions as merely wanting a woman's "company" but upon further questioning conceded that he planned to rape her and "keep her for a few days," but he denied that he planned to kill.
While the intended victim escaped serious physical harm, the mother of another young woman whose story had a grimmer ending says she remains frustrated by the frequency of such incidents.
"Luckily, this had a good outcome, but it was luck," says Gil Harrington, whose daughter, Morgan Harrington, disappeared after leaving a Metallica concert at the John Paul Jones Arena in October 2009. The 20-year-old's remains were later found on a remote Albemarle County farm, and the case remains unsolved.
"The increased regularity of such atrocities happening, I think, underscores the fallacy of what young people think– that it couldn't happen to me," says Harrington, who hopes what happened on Stadium Road will further raise awareness and help change a culture of denial that she believes allows such crimes to occur.
"It's happening to your neighbor, your suitemate, and your sorority sister," she says. "You have to shine the light on it."
Beaulieu, whose only immediately confirmable prior criminal charge is a marijuana possession from February, is currently held without bail and charged with abduction with intent to defile, a Class 2 Felony that carries a minimum sentence of 20 years. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for January 3 in Charlottesville District Court.
50 comments
Not to blame the victim here at all - why the heck are they still walking alone after dark?!!! She was lucky. Please, after dark walk with a friend. What made her a prime target was - she was ALONE. How many assaults have been on grounds just this fall? Use common sense!
It is horrible when any violent crime happens, but is it actually happening more frequently? My understanding was that recent police statistics showed that it was staying the same or even going down.
C'Ville Native,
Why don't you try finding someone to walk you home everyday for one month. A woman would be able to walk home by herself. Let's first be realistic for how many times a woman walks home vs the actually amount of attacks is pretty low. Second, your comments are victimizing the women. Oh, if only she walked with a friend. As a society we should be ashamed that we even need to consider that as a choice.
Patrick, we should be able to leave our doors unlocked to our homes, cars and businesses.. we should be able to allow our children to walk to their bus stop or play outside. we SHOULD expect a lot of things... but we live in a society where liars, thieves, rapists and murderers do what they do. and so even though I am certainly no alarmist, I have to agree that no matter how difficult it is.. no matter how ridiculous it may seem.. we are responsible to some degree for our own safety. if i leave my wallet on the front seat of the car with the key in the ignition... do i not have some responsibility if my car and money are stolen? (let me be clear that i am NOT saying that my responsibility would in some way negate the responsbility of the thief and/or attacker in this case)
The attacker was an employee of a UVA dining hall yet the university refuses to communicate with their students about what has happened and what the school is doing to prevent further incidences. His butcher knife was even stolen from the school. We need to speak openly about these assaults instead of sweeping them under the rug.
We should continue to focus on teaching men not to rape and abuse rather than how how women can avoid being raped or abused. Men: stop doing it. Friends of rapists: tell guys not to do it. This is the problem. Watch the movie Half the Sky or read the book. Women are more likely to be killed or harmed by a man than by disease, war, poverty, accidents -- all other caused combined. This is seriously. Women and girls should be able to walk, study, go to parties, concerts, etc. without being killed or raped.
One doesn't ' teach' young men not to rape. Rapists have multiple problems and disorders in their lives that go way beyond teaching. This guy planned on doing more than raping. Rapists need to be treated as serial killers.
Not to blame cville native, but I'm going to blame cville native. "Ladies" don't go out after dark! Pearl's mother has it right: cville native: yell at the men around you, not the women. This young woman had the training she needed & had every right to be out and about whenever she bloody-well wanted to be out. She was pragmatic. So have I been: still was raped in my home twenty-some years ago. What, I shouldn't have lived alone? Get a grip. Increasingly, as far as I can tell, we 'ladies' need men to protect us from...other men. If the men policed themselves as willingly as they police the women around them... well, a lot less violence against women, I think. I see less of a line between Malala & this young woman than you do.
This is alarming and thank God this girl did not get hurt. Even walking with a friend is no safety as there could be a group of men. UVA needs to step up its game and provide more awareness and more security. Provide classes for students. They do on drinking! Provide self-defense. Also, as a mother of a freshman there, I find it hard to notice where any emergency call buttons are. They must be limited. I thought UVA was a safe place until my student enrolled. I didn't pay attention to this much as he is a male, but come to think of it, many other schools we toured had much more sound security.
@CVille Native: It gets dark at 4:30pm. Female students have to be able to walk from the library and dining hall to their residences without escorts. I say arm every coed with a tazer!
Also, I believe the Clery Act requires the school to send out a notification to all the students. Was this done, or is Chief Gibson still trying to craft a story about how men can't stop themselves?
It does get dark at 4:30. My daughter lives in a dorm near Runk and must be out past 4:30 regularly. It is unrealistic that she have an escort at all times. I am concerned that the University is not making all the students aware of this incident. This is frightening and I hope that UVA will take steps to ensure that all the young women are given whatever information that this young woman used to save herself.
I am so proud of this young lady who faught back , he would have NEVER let her go .
IF YOU are taken to a SECOND location , its most likley your last stop alive.
WOW, Mad at a girl so you destroy somebody elses life, may Karma hand this low life what he deserves.
Would we be reading this story if the perp had been stopped by UVA police instead of City police?
This man is nothing more than a rabid animal with a diseased mind. You can't teach or train that out of him, and no warning or threat of incarceration will deter men bent on this type of behavior. This young woman was brave enough to fight and lucky enough to get away.
Years ago, walking my dogs, I came across a rabid raccoon on the trail. I called the police to have the animal dealt with...the officer arrived, asked me to cover my ears and shot the raccoon...seems like a perfectly reasonable way to deal with a rabid animal.
I'm another who agrees that it's ridiculous to scold the woman for being alone. I spend a lot of time very near this area (run regularly on Stadium, right past Runk) and while this area could use more lighting - as could the garage - it is a neighborhood chock full of students and ought to be a perfectly reasonable place for a woman to walk alone. There are plenty of call boxes and a fairly heavy UVa police presence, at least up on the other side of the stadium. Maybe they need to add some lighting along stadium. I know I run, frequently after dark in the early evening, and pass lots of young ladies walking alone - it does not seem to me they are being reckless about their safety.
The sad fact is that the world is a different place than it once was. We need to adapt accordingly. It will do no good to say what should or could have happened. Placing blame does not help. Everyone needs to take responsibility for themselves. Saying that "that won't happen to me" is foolhardy, and safety roulette at best. Your life can change in a moment. Take the time to be responsible. It may be inconvenient to ask for an escort, but I would venture to say it would be worth the time compared to the potential outcome.
I'm wondering if anyone can find rape/attempted rape by a stranger statistics for Charlottesville from September 2009 to date. I know Gil Harrington thinks Charlottesville is the most dangerous place in the world, and getting more dangerous every day, but the fact is, violent assaults are still pretty rare here. It's not every day you find a psycho leaving his job at Aramark and attacking a woman near the University. I don't think we all need to panic, we just need to be aware, and be prepared, like this young woman was.
These stats show that albermarle county's violent crime rate fell between 2000 and 2009, changing rank from 40th out of 95 counties in 2000 to 54th in 2009 (with 95th having the lowest violent crime rate). Roanoke has more violent crimes than albermarle, but did fall from having the 20th most violent crimes in 2000 to just 30th in 2009.
Albermarle ranks 90th out of 135 statewide (135 being lowest), and roanoke ranks 60th.
http://www.dcjs.virginia.gov/research/documents/12%20Crime-inVA-2012.pdf
Why do any of you keep blaming Chief Gibson? What exactly is it he's not doing that could have prevented this suspect from attacking a lone female walking down the sidewalk at midnight? I doubt seriously if there's many UVA students who haven't heard about this abduction attempt. And I doubt seriously if there's very many of these students who have learned much from it. The students will continue to do what they do. If the students place themselves in harm's way, Chief Gibson and his troops can't be yards away to rescue them instantly.
Sure, people should be able to walk down the street without being attacked. But this is the year 2012, we're not living in Mayberry any longer. I wish we could revert back to the ole Mayberry days.
From the Cav Daily:
“[The police] don’t want to be sending out emails all the time and have students become numb to it,” Groves said.
Groves doesn't really believe the BS he spews! It's the usual UVA spin. They can never be wrong, never take responsibility.
"University Police Lieut. Melissa Fielding similarly said Sunday students were not informed of the incident because the assailant was expediently apprehended after the incident."
UVA is obliged to send out an immediate alert. Lieut. Fielding is parsing the language of the law. If expediently is less than 15 mins but shouldn't everyone on grounds be warned even for those 15 mins. If it was a gunman running around on campus would the Lieut. still be parsing words?
@Gasbag, I have 2 children who are UVA students. They heard about the incident first from me, not anyone at UVA. If students don't read the CD or watch local news, I don't know that they know about it. So far, there have been no emails or notifications from anyone at UVA. I wrote an email to Student Affairs & SARA when the news broke, asking for info that I can share with my daughters so that they too can avoid such an attack, but so far, I have received no response.
Bullet to the back of the head
Has anyone contacted the Clery Center to ask what the law requires? I would suggested the Hook contact Dan Carter and ask him to explain what the school was required to do as far as a Clery notification.
There are many more incidents of this nature that occur that the school does not believe need to be released. It just so happens this one was reported in the press. How about all those calls that are listed in the crime log as "suspicious circumstance"? What types of crime calls were those?
In 2006 UVA was cited by the Dept of Ed to be in violation of the Clery Laws. It's no surprise to any of us that they continue to be non-compliant. Until the students and parents demand answers, UVA will continue to stretch their words to cover up crime. And to Gasbag -- that is what is wrong with Gibson. Rather than saying "NOT ON MY WATCH", he and his staff spend their time figuring out how to sweep this stuff under the rug. He should have issued a Cery notification.
Could this be the freak that killed the Harrington girl???
@Parent
Stop being so paranoid. I was there when the Dean spoke. He gave good reasons. He said that because the suspect was caught almost immediately after the event in question, the police felt it was unnecessary to send out an alarmist email. They are legally obligated to send out emails when there is a suspect at large. Nobody is denying that.
@ Fact Check
Sorry to burst your bs bubble but Lampkin sent out an email that addresses what Groves didn't. Parents have every reason to be paranoid. Morgan H's killer is still at large. I'm fed up of the misinformation and spin that comes out of uva.
How about protecting students? not UVA's reputation. Why the deliberate cover up of the story. Every person on campus should be aware of this story and yet you think it fit not to inform. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?????
I have little trust in the Dean of Students office. Remember Laushway? You probably work in that office. This policy of cover up is going to tank applications. How about some transparency???????????????????
Yeh, I AM A PARANOID AND PISSED OFF PARENT!!!!!!!!!!!
This was luck pure and simple.
Just like it's (bad) luck to become the prey of a sexual predator. If a predator sees you with someone, you are a bad target. Why take chances? It's not right but it's reality.
From Lampkin's email. She's disingenuous! There was a danger to the community from the time of the crime to when the perp was captured! In typical UVA fashion they are parsing the words of the Clery Act. Remember the V-Tech shootings? Who decided that this perp was not a danger to the community for the several hours he was on the loose?
Then to add insult to injury Lampkin implies that the story was posted in the CavDaily implying they didn't try to bury it. Absolute bull.
Lampkin et al, you have lost the trust of this community. Time for you and Dragas to GO!
First, I am deeply thankful this student was able to fight off her attacker.
Second, does the UVa police chief mean to imply that this sort of incident is so common at UVa that regular notification would lead to inattention, like ignoring the false alarms about tornadoes we have in this area??
I can NOT believe that campus police/authorities in Virginia have forgotten that on the terrible morning of the attack at VT, the police believed they knew what had happened and were completely wrong. In this recent case, the police got the perpetrator quickly and a crisis was averted but it could have easily been otherwise. Universities have a duty of care to their students which should not depend upon interpretation of the Clery Act.
@Parent: you have every cause to be worried. My personal dealings with Lampkin show her to be very disingenuous. She lied to me and then went on to lie to the Dept of Education when she wrote the UVA response to the 2006 Clery Act complaint. Advise your daughter to be vigilant and teach her to fight back if attacked. No one on that campus is concerned with her safety.
Women should not have to walk with a partner in the wee hours of the morning, but they could get a personal alarm for 20 bucks and they may help.
http://www.amazon.com/Personel-Chainch-Necklace-Requires-Batteries/sim/B...
I prefer this:
http://www.amazon.com/Terminator-800-Volt-Stun-Flashlight/dp/B0058DBSMI/...
For those of you that are outraged by what I wrote - hello? We have a rapist out there who kidnapped and murdered women - Harrington? Recall that case?
UVA has programs that people can call and get "escorts" if they realize they are at the library and need to walk home - USE THEM. This girl got damn lucky - that is all it was, not skill, not anything else - LUCK. Had it swung the other way we would have seen another headline here and all over. And based upon the local police it would be unsolved.
It has nothing to do with being a "lady" or a "good" or "bad" girl - it has to do with survival period. Using your head and having some common sense. I guarantee you - this girl will never go out alone again and walk.
Yes, we should ideally be able to go out on the Downtown Mall after dark wearing a bathing suit and not be a victim - but those days are GONE. Rapists and murderers are released from prisons every day and they come out of those systems becoming better criminals. Ask any cop about that. They don't catch the smart ones.
Awful things happen to wonderful people every day. We can beat the stuffing out of each other here, or we can choose to blame the perpetrator. Short of having an armed escort for every individual (not only women) on the UVA grounds, or anywhere, for that matter, we must rely on ourselves and no one else for protection. Prevention is always the best option. Living in the shadow of fear isn't living at all. Be aware. Live smart, live long.
This attack did not take place because an email was or wasn't sent. The blame for this goes squarely on the demented young man who attempted the abduction. Everyone seems to want the head of the would-be messenger.
@C'ville Native...I totally agree with you..."we should ideally be able to go out on the Downtown Mall after dark wearing a bathing suit and not be a victim - but those days are GONE". Those days never were.
These things are happening more often for a number of reasons, the first of which is the cultural mistreatment of maleness in our society. You dangle sex and porn and drugs in front of a man, inscribe on him certain acceptable behaviors, fill the airwaves with violence, and then throw in post-modern gender dynamics, and this sort of thing is inevitable. His relief at being caught gives away the inner conflict that is being denied as a social reality. If gender is a social construct, the cultural abuse of traditional male norms (like certain machismo) has a dark side of repression that comes out as aggression and sexual promiscuity and violence.
In other words, this is a backlash against the pseudo-feminist undermining of "what it means to be a man."
@omgitspaul: ya missed the point. The email people refer to is not to prohibit an attack - learn about the Clery Act. Students are supposed to be notified anytime an attack occurs on campus or in the surrounding town. Sorry, it's the law.
@CVille Native: Most women who are attacked are wearing jeans and long sleeves. Get over the bathing suit mentality. Are we supposed to raise our daughters to be afraid of the dark? What does that do to their psyche?
This stuff happens because the Commonwealth Attorneys in Albemarle and Charlottesville don't prosecute. Precedent has been set. Don't call the Judge honorable - call it what it is....another failure by the system to put a pervert behind bars forever .
@Pam - you didn't get what I was stating - no matter how a victim is dressed, it doesn't give anyone the right to attack them - that was my point there. Those days are gone or as omgitspaul stated, never were.
Long ago and far away I was one that would walk alone, the age of, "that could never happen to me". Katie Worsky and Paula Chandler happened and you realized it could happen to you. I didn't walk alone after that.
And Pam, "This stuff happens because the Commonwealth Attorneys in Albemarle and Charlottesville don't prosecute." - they also don't get the evidence to do so. How many unsolved murders are in this area? Let me count them up, most because the FBI swept in and totally freaked up the investigations. When they have the evidence, they can and do prosecute.
http://readthehook.com/86065/cover-glenn-barker-serial-killer-or-con...
Many times you may have a gut feeling or circumstantial evidence someone is guilty but do you have the proof? Do you have enough to convict? I can tell you that I believe there are many murders that happen but are never investigated because of other circumstances. An example: Elderly who die and it is said of "old age" or their countless medical conditions but it may have been sped along but other means. No one investigates because nothing truly comes up that would indicate it was murder.
In all likelihood someone walking alone (male or female) won't get mugged/raped/whatever. But it does happen and when it's happening to you, you'd wish you weren't alone. Until the Pre-Crime division is fully jacked into everyone's brain and can arrest criminals before they offend, not walking alone at night is the best policy.
@clod
You expalin to the tee why Susan Smith drown her kids.
ps Dear Santa , please bring the Hook into the 2000's with a new comment system like DISQUS
Amazon justice for creeps like Beaulieu and Huguely! Every woman a Xena!
the JMU automatically e-mails the entire university community with an incident summary as soon as there is a crime not only on campus but in the surrounding city. Not infrequently I then comment on the case with my students and we have had awareness raising dialogue about the constant predation of largely female students. UVA absolutely should adopt the policy of auto-notification. It DOES raise awareness!
Perhaps its wise to send your daughters to UVa armed with self-defense weapons that, if properly used, would obviate the perchance arrest of the perp as he sped away ten miles hence.
Mucho-grande congrats and thanks to this woman for fighting for herself and what is right. Predators like this deserve looooong sentences.
Auto-notification is a mandate because of the Clery Act. UVA chooses to ignore the Clery Act and the Dept of Ed is overwhelmed. Until a parent files an Clery Act complaint, nothing will change. the stupid Women's Center or any of the feminist groups don't have the ba**s to demand the University follow federal guidelines.....
@Tega: Absolutely! Put tazers in their Christmas stockings! And yes, kudos to the woman who protected herself. Her story needs to be published. I think she did exactly what she needed to do to save herself!!!
@Pam - thank you for your common sense posts.
This story was truly frightening to read. As a female, this part sends chills up my spine: "but upon further questioning conceded that he planned to rape her and "keep her for a few days," but he denied that he planned to kill." I'm with whoever else here said that he had no intention of letting her go. There's just no way he would have/could have let her go with his DNA all over her and the fact that she would have seen or heard enough of something to hopefully lead law enforcement right back to him. He would have killed her and dumped the body. Once he was on a roll one thing would have led to another.
It doesn't help that Hollywood movies love to depict people, especially women, getting abducted, locked away somewhere and raped, tortured and killed. There have been other stories over the past couple of years detailing women who managed to get away from some maniac who had some torture dungeon all set up and waiting to receive them. Hollywood helps feed the minds of these sickos, gives them ideas. :/
Concealed carry permits and proper gun training would take care of a lot of this. Of course IF this young animal's parents can't afford to buy off the courts, he'll learn first hand what rape feels like, and if statistics are proof, he'll be ravaged and raped by black inmates (I'm not racists, but as a former police officer I know the culture in prisons). When he gets out of prison with multiple memories of "physical pain," who will he attack and rape then to make someone else feel HIS pain? Blacks? Men? Women? Unless he hangs himself in his jail cell we'll hear his name again, and not in connection with anything good.
This is why I carry. This zombie would have found himself leaking from multiple .357 leak points courtesy my Ruger LCR. 13.5 onces of bad news to swiftly dispatch all critters that may attack four legged or two.
I'm 5'6 120 lb and yes I can handle the recoil.
If C'ville is so dangerous that every female needs to be accompanied after dark every time they go out, and if the University and the Campus police are STILL not reporting crimes and attempted assults on women, there is a simple solution. DON'T SEND YOUR FEMALE CHILDREN THERE. The University obviously doesnt care about their safety, Harrington and Yeardley and many many others notwithstanding. Send them to a school that values women's lives. UVA sure hasn't done a good job of that recently either with their students, or with their senior administrators. There ain't a UVA honor code anymore, that is self evident. Maybe appealing to the honor of the wallet might reform Old Boy UVA.