MIDDLESEX COUNTY, Va. -- A search is underway for the man who attacked the mother of his two small children outside their Wake-area daycare, according to Middlesex County Sheriff’s Major Mickey Sampson. William Edward Nelson Jr., 30, of Deltaville, is wanted for the attack that left his estranged wife Andrea Nelson, 25, bloodied. He allegedly attacked Andrea while she and their children, ages six and three, walked from the daycare to their car the afternoon of March 5.

"Willie came from behind a parked vehicle. He told me to get in the car now. He told me not to scream. He said if I screamed he would kill me and the kids," Andrea Nelson recounted. "He grabbed my keys and forced me into my car. When he started the car, I started screaming and got out of the car. That's when he threw me down and hit me in the face."

Nelson said she got back up and maced her estranged husband in an effort to stop the attack.

"He threw me down again and hit me in the face, one last time," she said. "I was screaming, my kids were screaming."

Just then, the husband of her daycare provider came outside, she said.

"[That] scared him and he ran off into the woods," Andrea Nelson said.

Nelson was taken to the hospital where she was treated for wounds to her face. She said she received 14 stitches.

In addition to Virginia, investigators said William "Willie" Nelson Jr. had ties to North Carolina and New Jersey.

He was arrested last year for assaulting Andrea and charged with assault and battery of a family member -- third offense. He served nine months in jail and was released in August. He also served time for violating a protective order, Middlesex County Court records indicated.

Andrea Nelson said she had seen last seen Willie three weeks before the attack. The couple was married in 2010. She said she had not officially divorced Willie, because she was too afraid to speak with him about it.

Investigators asked anyone who sees Willie Nelson Jr. to call the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office Hotline at 804-758-5600.