Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PROVO — Provo police arrested a man accused of barricading a woman in a public restroom, threatening her with a knife and forcing her to disrobe, according to a tweet from the Provo Police Department.
Wayne Ray Leas Jr., 34, was arrested Monday morning after Brigham Young University police found him hiding near the campus' central utilities plant with a different knife than the one used in the assault, according to Provo Police Lt. Brian Taylor.
BYU police recognized Leas from the description the Provo police had given out and interviewed the man. They then called Provo police to come arrest Leas. He is not a BYU student, Taylor said.
Leas allegedly assaulted a young woman hiking in Rock Canyon with a group of friends around midnight Nov. 6 after she decided to turn around and head back by herself to use a public restroom. She was confronted by Leas who barricaded her in the restroom and demanded she take her clothes off, according to Taylor.
As she did so, she was able to call a male friend and left the call on so he could hear what was happening. He quickly returned and confronted Leas who fled, according to Taylor.
