A woman was sexually assaulted in a camper near the Mass. Pike in Palmer, police say
A suspect has been arrested.
A 38-year-old woman was “held against her will, sexually assaulted, and strangled inside a camping trailer” near the Massachusetts Turnpike in Palmer early Wednesday morning, state police said in a release, and a suspect has been taken into custody.
Leemichael Collins, 25, of Palmer, was expected to be arraigned on related charges in Palmer District Court on Wednesday, according to police.
The woman reported the incident after flagging down a truck driver on the Pike for help shortly after 5 a.m. She was taken to Wing Hospital in Palmer by responding emergency personnel.
Police said they searched the woods near the highway, where the woman had emerged from, and found evidence. Additional information led them to a trailer parked on Flynt Street in Palmer and then Collins, a resident of that street, they said. Collins was interviewed by police and then arrested, according to the release.
Police initially said the woman flagged down the tractor-trailer in Brimfield, but later corrected that information, saying it was near the Palmer-Brimfield line.
