Late Tuesday afternoon, residents around Eldridge and Stow roads saw police cruisers gathering nearby and a state police helicopter hovering overhead. An announcement on the Harvard police Facebook page warned, “Please avoid the area.” The posting said police were searching for a shirtless 52-year-old man wanted for assaulting a woman at the Boxborough Regency Hotel.
Harvard Police and State Police apprehend a fugitive on Hillcrest Drive in south Harvard, Sept. 5. (Courtesy photo).
The incident began around 3 p.m., Harvard Police Chief James Babu told the Press. Boxborough police asked Harvard for help in capturing the man. He had tried to sexually assault a woman worker who had come into a hotel room to clean it. The man grabbed her, but she managed to break away from him. He then fled toward the Delaney Wildlife Management Area. The man was described as white, about 5 feet 11 inches tall, with a beard.
Police set up a perimeter around the area where the man was thought to be. Babu said officers from Boxborough, Harvard, Acton, Westford, and Littleton took part in a search that involved canine teams and drones, as well as the state police and their helicopter. The helicopter team spotted the fugitive more than once but then lost sight of him in the wooded area.
The search went on for more than two hours. A Boxborough police officer was hospitalized for heat exhaustion but has recovered, Babu said.
Shortly after 5 p.m., Babu said, he and several other Harvard officers were on Eldridge Road when a 911 caller reported a naked man on nearby Hillcrest Drive. The Harvard team moved quickly and, with state police, captured the suspect. He was covered in scrapes and cuts from his scramble through the woods, so Boxborough police took him to a hospital.
The suspect is from Merrimack, New Hampshire. Babu said he may be charged with kidnapping and assault and battery. However, depending on the circumstances, he may also be held at a hospital for a mental health evaluation (under Title XVII, Ch. 123, Section 12 of Massachusetts General Laws), which is why his name had not yet been released as this issue went to press.
