An arrest was made last week in connection with two incidents in a string of alleged abduction attempts in Yorkton.
Twenty-three-year-old Yorkton resident Curtis Pawliw has been charged with solicitation and assault. He has been released from custody and will next appear in Yorkton court on May 30.
Yorkton RCMP had a break in the case on Tuesday, April 5 upon hearing a report of a fourth encounter matching the description of three complaints from late March.
At 2:00 that afternoon, a 28-year-old woman on foot was approached by a man in a dark four-door truck who offered her money to get into the vehicle with him. She declined, and having recognized the man and his truck from media releases about the earlier incidents, recorded his license plate as he left the scene. She then called police.
RCMP arrested Pawliw that evening on the basis of this information.
The charge of solicitation relates to the latest incident, while the assault charge is in connection to the first event on March 19.
As of press time, no charges have been laid over the other two incidents. This includes the most serious one on March 30, when a 21-year-old woman was allegedly forced into a truck at knifepoint before managing to escape.
Connections to those events are still under investigation, said Sgt. James Morton of the Yorkton General Investigation Section.
Morton added that he is pleased with the city and province-wide alert effort that led police to this arrest.
"The cooperation of the community as a whole was tremendous on this. We appreciate every bit that we can get from the public."
The RCMP renewed their public safety warning with their latest update on the case, advising young women to always carry a cell phone, be aware of their surroundings, and avoid walking alone.
"We're a city, and we need to understand that there's all kinds of people that make the world go round," Morton said. "We always have to be diligent looking after our own safety and the safety of our own."
