Community tips help police arrest Hightstown man, 18, in sexual assault case

⚠️ An 18-year-old Hightstown man faces charges in a Sept. 11 sexual assault investigation.

➡️ Anonymous tips helped police identify Christian Arevalo as the suspect.

🔴 Investigators also linked him to a separate August incident involving another woman.

HIGHTSTOWN — An 18-year-old local man has been accused of raping a woman as she was walking on a Hightstown street, two weeks ago.

Christian Arevalo, of Hightstown, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with two counts each of first-degree aggravated sexual assault and second-degree sexual assault.

He was additionally charged with third-degree counts of aggravated assault and criminal restraint.

Arevalo is also known as Christian Arevalo Tenenpaguay, according to a criminal complaint.

Police say woman was attacked while walking in Hightstown

The 34-year-old victim said she was walking in the area of Park Way and Rogers Avenue in Hightstown on Sept. 11 at 8 p.m. when she was approached from behind and placed in a chokehold, before being sexually assaulted.

Law enforcement shared two street-level surveillance videos with the public on Tuesday, after which several anonymous tips led to Arevalo as the suspect.

His family told police that Arevalo made some incriminating statements after the videos were released, asking for money to take his child and leave town, according to an affidavit filed by investigators.

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Suspect is linked to separate August incident

Investigators found that it was similar to an incident a month earlier.

A local resident told Hightstown police that along North Main Street on Aug. 12 at 9:40 p.m., she was approached and touched inappropriately by a strange male, who ran when she yelled.

Arevalo faces additional charges for the August incident — third-degree counts of criminal restraint and aggravated criminal sexual contact and fourth-degree criminal sexual contact.

He is also charged with harassment by unlawful touching and criminal trespassing, which are disorderly person offenses.

(Canva, Townsquare Media Illustration)

“This arrest demonstrates the importance of community cooperation. You may think the information you have to offer is insignificant, but sometimes it is enough to give investigators the piece they need to solve the puzzle,” Mercer County Prosecutor Janetta D. Marbrey said on Thursday.

She also thanked the Hightstown and East Windsor police departments and “exceptional investigative efforts” of the MCPO Special Victims Unit.

Anyone with potential information or who has had a similar encounter was asked to contact SVU Sgt. Sherika Salmon at 609-960-3119 or Detective Natalie Martinez at 609-331-4318.

Tips can also be submitted anonymously online at mercercountyprosecutor.com/tips.

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