John Boyle

jboyle@citizen-times.com

It's got to do better than this.

I'm referring to the National Park Service and its dissemination of information after a sexual assault near the Blue Ridge Parkway at Craggy Gardens on May 12.

This has been a strange case from the beginning, with information trickling out and the public largely left in the dark for weeks. The Park Service initially described the incident as a "possible assault," and further said it was likely "isolated."

It didn't release a sketch of the suspect — a key tool to spur recognition from the public via media reports — until 11 days after the attack. And it released information about the sexual nature of the crime after our reporter, Tonya Maxwell, pushed them on it, having learned of that information elsewhere.

This sounds ridiculously obvious, but hikers and outdoor enthusiasts, especially women, need to know this stuff, and quickly. In this case, the suspect could be in Antarctica by now.

I know when I heard initial reports, my mind raced with all sorts of speculation about what could have happened. That's what people do — we imagine various scenarios to try to explain what seems unfathomable to us. Especially when there's an information void.

We also tend to dismiss items like this sometimes, with an attitude of, "It can't happen to me," especially when law enforcement uses terms like "isolated incident" and "possible assault." Reading initial reports based on the information released, women might have decided it was OK to go hiking there alone, as it was "an isolated incident."

That wording, NPS Spokeswoman Leesa Brandon told the Citizen-Times, meant investigators checked with other law enforcement agencies and found no similar assaults.

It does not mean the suspect has been caught or somehow no longer poses a threat. I suspect a lot of people took this to mean, essentially, "No worries," especially since so little other information was forthcoming.

I asked Brandon about the timing and information release, and she sent me answers via email. She noted assaults are remarkably rare on the 469-mile parkway, stating that over "the last five years, this incident is the only assault on a park visitor that has occurred on the parkway in that time."

"However, on the afternoon of May 12, the improbable did happen on the parkway," Brandon said. "In an effort to respond to early media inquiries, and with information still being evaluated in the investigation, on Friday, May 13, 2016, the parkway issued a statement alerting the public of a possible assault."

She also explained some of the early confusion.

"The original call and response by first responders was to a medical emergency which is why, until initial investigative work could confirm what was known to have happened, more detailed information was not available," Brandon said. " As soon as the incident was confirmed as more than a medical response, the parkway issued a written description of the suspect and immediately began to work with the NPS Investigative Services Branch."

As far as the sketch being released 11 days later, Brandon told me it was released the same day it was composed.

"It took 11 days to compile a valid suspect sketch as the victim had to be willing and ready to meet with an available artist," Brandon said. "Once the sketch was completed, it was released later that same day."

Brandon also noted that since May 12, they've had "no other reports of similar assaults by persons matching our suspect in the area."

"Based on our investigation in this case, we believe the general risk to the public is no greater or less than prior to May 12," she said.

I understand law enforcement has a difficult job to do, and officers don't want to panic the public, but this case still reminded me closely of another case on federal lands.

In September 2011, a man in the Wayah Bald area of Nantahala National Forest pretended to be injured, lying in the road to lure a woman to him. She left her car to help him, and he threatened to kill her with a handgun, then raped her.

In that case, the U.S. Forest Service did not divulge if it had a suspect or if he was still at large — or release that all-important sketch — until five days after the attack. The suspect could've driven across the country in that time. No arrests were made in that case.

I asked Fred Hawley, a professor in the department of criminology and criminal Justice at Western Carolina University, about the most recent incident at Craggy Gardens and the slow release of information from the National Park Service. Hawley said the low incidence of serious crime works against the NPS in cases like these, simply because it doesn't handle that many of them.

"That's not their baileywick," Hawley said. "I anticipate they were trying to be very sensitive to the victim, and that they were trying to not stir up a lot of publicity over a crime that is not typical."

Brandon noted the Park Service has special investigators to handle cases like this sexual assault, the Investigative Services Branch — "a special division of the National Park Service providing expertise and case management in all types of criminal investigations to the 411 units of the National Park Service."

"Our focus continues to be to advance the investigation, provide for the well-being of the victim and provide information for public safety," Brandon said via email.

That all makes sense. I just wish the NPS would do that with more of a sense of urgency.

In a Saturday followup story, Maxwell quoted Barbara Lohf, of Biltmore Lake, who was unhappy it took nearly three weeks for the Park Service to divulge the sexual nature of the attack.

“The best way people can protect themselves is with information," Lohf said. "Information has not been available in this circumstance.”

I can't say it better than that.

This is the opinion of John Boyle. Contact him at 232-5847 or jboyle@citizen-times.com

National Park Service: Parkway assault sexual in nature

Hikers given little warning after woman sexually assaulted