Police Looking for Suspect who Attempted to Abduct Young Woman

East Ridge police are searching for a man who allegedly tried to abduct a young woman on Saturday afternoon.

According to a press release, on Saturday at 3:20 p.m. officers responded to a reported attempted abduction and assault in the 1600 Block of Springvale Avenue. A 22- year-old woman reported that a man emerged from the wooded area around Springvale Park and approached her as she walked down the road. The man used a pocket knife he took from the victim to force her onto the trails. The suspect slipped during the walk into the woods allowing the victim to flee.

The victim suffered minor injuries during the ordeal. She described the suspect as a white male, 5-foot, 9-inches tall with a lean and lanky build. The man has dirty blonde hair that is wavy. The suspect has deep blue eyes, is clean shaven, with freckles on his face, a scar on his left arm surrounded by three freckles. The man is clean cut and smelled of cologne.

The suspect was last seen wearing a black t-shirt and black shorts and black military style jungle boots.

If anyone has any information regarding the crime please contact East Ridge Police Dispatch at 423-622-1725

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.