Prosecutor: Attempted daytime rape of woman in Marlboro, NJ park

MARLBORO — The physical attack and attempted rape of a female jogger in a Monmouth County park earlier this week is under active investigation, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey announced Saturday.

A woman was running just before noon on Thursday in Marlboro Township’s Big Brook Park about 100 feet off the Henry Hudson Trail, not far from the trail's eastern end at Boundary Road.

She noticed a man stretching nearby, moments before he attacked her and pulled out a knife, which he used to cause minor injuries to the woman's arms, Linskey said.

The man then exposed himself and tried to rape the woman but she managed to fight him off, according to the prosecutor. He ran off in an unknown direction.

Authorities said the suspect is described as a tanned, white adult male with medium-length hair, about 6 feet and 240 pounds, wearing a dark-colored hooded sweatshirt and sweatpants.

He also reportedly had a raised scar on one ear, light facial hair and a distinctive neck tattoo, as seen in a sketch of the suspect created Friday by the State Police.

Linksey said the man is to be considered armed and dangerous — anyone who believes they have encountered him is urged not to approach him, but instead immediately call 911.

Different rape suspect

The sketch appeared to be a different male suspect than two previous sexual assaults of different women in parks, roughly two months apart — in the areas of Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park and in a Bridgewater park.

Spokespersons for both the Middlesex and Somerset County Prosecutor's Offices told New Jersey 101.5 that those offices have been working collaboratively, but would not disclose further details, pending the ongoing investigations.

No arrest has yet been made in the Sept. 28 rape of a woman who was approached by a man armed with a gun as she walked inside D&R Canal park near the South Brunswick/Plainsboro border, prosecutors said.

The man took her to a "secondary location" where she was assaulted, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone.

On July 18, a woman was riding a bike in Duke Island Park around dusk, when she said she stopped to use her cell phone, according to the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office.

In that attack, the man came up from behind, held a knife to the woman's throat and asked for money before sexually assaulting her in some nearby bushes, prosecutors previously said.