Teen Arrested in Brutal Assault of 7-Year-Old Puyallup Girl

A 14-year-old male is in police custody this morning after a 7-year-old girl was found severely injured in a wooded area, near the Glenbrooke Apartment complex on 43rd Ave. SE.

Rescue searchers found the girl conscious but with significant injuries—she had been choked and possibly sexually assaulted. She identified a neighbor boy from her complex as the perpetrator and was transported to Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital for serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

“This is an extremely brave and strong young lady, to survive such a brutal attack,” said Puyallup Police Chief Bryan Jeter.

The girl went missing from the complex around 6 p.m. Wednesday night and neighborhood volunteers did a search for about an hour before calling the police.

Puyallup Police arrived on scene and canvassed the neighborhood with a door-to-door search. After a canvas failed to locate the missing girl, the search was expanded to areas outside of the complex. Central Pierce Fire & Rescue assisted the search with a flare device over the area and police called in a bloodhound from Normandy Park.

A resident of the apartment complex, who was involved with the search prior to police arrival, located a shoe at the edge of a wooded area north of the apartment complex. The Bloodhound was deployed in the area where the shoe was located. At approximately 12:13 a.m., K-9 tracked her location in the woods, where she was found lying in heavy brush.

The girl was able to identify her attacker as the 14-year-old boy.

Puyallup Major Crimes Unit secured a Superior Court arrest warrant and a search warrant for the suspect and apartment. The suspect was taken into custody at approximately 4:45 a.m. 

Chief Jeter said that it is unclear at this time whether or not this was a sexually-motivated attack.

An AP interview with Capt. Dalan Brokaw indicates that the suspect might have told the victim a story about an injured animal in the woods to lure her away.

Police had previous contact with the suspect when he was the victim of an assault, Jeter confirmed, but details are unavailable at this time.

It is unclear at this point if this boy is a Puyallup student.