Alex L. Boyden

A teenager is behind bars without bail on charges he held a knife to a woman's neck, cut her on the hand, sexually assaulted her and choked her until she blacked out Saturday along a dead-end road in Jackson Township.

The suspect, Alex Lamont Boyden II, 18, of McKees Rocks, Allegheny County, allegedly left the injured woman along the road and drove away in her car.

The victim, also of McKees Rocks, sought help from a passing motorist, Jackson Township police said. She later was taken by ambulance to a Pittsburgh hospital for treatment of injuries. Her condition was not known Sunday.

Police obtained an arrest warrant for the teen, and they were looking for him when he showed up at the Butler County Prison about 10 p.m. Sunday to turn himself in to authorities.

District Judge Lewis Stoughton arraigned Boyden on felony charges of attempted homicide, aggravated assault, rape, strangulation, theft and receiving stolen property.

He also was arraigned on charges of terroristic threats, possession of an instrument of crime, simple assault and criminal mischief, all misdemeanors, as well as a summary count of harassment. Stoughton denied bail.

The victim, police said, ran toward Tollgate School Road following the alleged assault and flagged down a motorist, who called police at 6 p.m. Saturday. He reported seeing the woman in trouble and bleeding from a cut on her left hand.

She gave police a harrowing account of her ordeal that began after she had earlier picked up Boyden, a friend, at a home in Kennedy Township, Allegheny County. She drove to several convenience stores, and they eventually changed seats.

Boyden drove onto Interstate 79 and headed north for an “extended period,” the woman recounted. She became “nervous,” police, and asked him to turn around. But he refused.

She told officers that Boyden at some point turned down a dirt/gravel road that stops at an embankment below the interstate off-ramp. Police later identified the road as Perry Way.

Boyden allegedly suggested they “hang out” there, which made the victim uncomfortable, police said. Boyden eventually got a knife and held it to her neck.

When she tried to take the knife away, a struggle ensued, police said, during which she was cut between the thumb and index finger on her left hand.

Boyden continued to threaten her, she said. Later, they both got out of the car from the passenger side door. Boyden, still holding the knife, is accused of walking the woman to a nearby grassy hillside.

He allegedly sexually assaulted her and again held the knife to her neck, repeatedly telling her, “I'm going to kill you” and, “Tell me what you know,” according to charging documents.

The woman told police that she did not know what Boyden wanted her to tell him. She recounted that he then strangled her.

“During this time,” documents said, “(the woman) felt that she was going to die, as she remembered not being able to breathe, then blacking out.”

She eventually regained consciousness and heard Boyden calling her name. She said she asked him to take her to a hospital, but he refused.

He subsequently ran to her car, a 2001 Mercedes-Benz convertible, and drove off, police said, but not before telling her to “lay there and die.”

Boyden was last seen traveling north on Route 19, and police said a license plate reading system indicated the car passed through Main and East New Castle streets in Zelienople.

The woman told police that after Boyden left, she remained on the ground for several minutes and then ran toward Tollgate School Road to get help.

Police said she had “very visible red marks around her neck,” that were consistent with injuries from being choked.