Police say man raped, beat woman, called his mom for gas

A Fayette County man is in jail awaiting a hearing on rape and assault charges while his alleged victim remained hospitalized with serious injuries from the beating, state police said.

Anthony Cramer, 23, of McClellandtown, is being held on $100,000 bail, pending a preliminary hearing at 1:30 p.m. next Thursday before District Judge Ronald Haggerty on charges of rape, kidnapping, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and simple assault.

The woman, interviewed by police at Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va., said the assault occurred Monday night, shortly after she met the suspect and he offered to drive her home to Uniontown, according to a police affidavit.

Instead, he pretended to head toward a gasoline station and drove her to a secluded location off Middle Run Road in German Township.

There, the suspect ordered the woman out of the vehicle and sexually assaulted her, the affidavit said.

When the woman asked her attacker to take her home, he punched her, knocking her to the ground, where he began kicking her in the head, face, chest, abdomen and back.

She suffered broken ribs and nose, a fractured skull, facial fractures and a torn spleen, police said in the affidavit.

He also took $30 from her and destroyed her cell phone, the affidavit said.

The suspect walked to the front of his van, and the woman said she then fled into the nearby brush to hide from him.

While cowering, she said she heard him try and fail to start his van. Then she heard him on a cell phone, saying, "Mom, I need some gas."

Within minutes, another vehicle arrived with a man and a woman who brought a can a gasoline, and the three then left the scene.

When it appeared safe for the victim to move, she said she walked to Route 166, where a motorist drove her to a convenience store in Carmichaels.

Based on the victim's description of the suspect and his vehicle, a white van, state police tracked him down Wednesday when they saw the van parked in his driveway on Lambert Road, less than two miles from where the woman was assaulted.

Investigators later returned to the scene, where they found blood and the victim's broken eyeglasses on the ground.



First published on September 16, 2010 at 12:42 pm