Rape suspect arrested

Alaska State Troopers arrested a man in Glennallen Friday who is suspected of raping two Valley women this fall.

Micah J. Beshaw, 26, is charged with two counts of first-degree sexual assault, two counts of second-degree sexual assault and and one count of kidnapping. He was arrested without incident, said Alaska State Trooper Leonard Wallner, who transported him back to Palmer. Beshaw is lodged at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility on $100,000 bail.

Beshaw, who worked as a manager at McDonald's in Palmer, is charged in connection with the rape of a 54-year-old woman who was ambushed from behind at Mile 49 Glenn Hwy. as she walked home from work at around 11 p.m. Sept. 22. The woman reported that a masked man grabbed her, dragged her into the bushes approximately 20 feet from the road and raped her. The suspect then allegedly duct-taped the woman's hands together and drove her to another location where he raped her again, according to charging documents.

Beshaw is also suspected in another rape seven days later that involved a 16-year-old girl who was kidnapped at McDonald's, but no charges have yet been made in that case, Wallner said. The victim told police she was handcuffed and covered by a blanket as she was taken in a vehicle and raped. She was then released by the attacker in the Sutton area. Palmer Police are investigating that case.

Early on, police investigators suspected Beshaw because of evidence found in Beshaw's truck, according to charging documents. Following up on information provided by one of the victims, police were able to locate Beshaw soon after the second attack. They pulled him over in a routine traffic stop. Inside his truck was a Polaroid photograph of one the females, partially nude, who had reported she was raped, according to charging documents.

Police obtained a search warrant and were able to impound the truck as evidence. Inside the truck, they also found dark clothing, gloves and the blanket the victims described as having been draped over them as he drove them to the places where he raped them. One of the victims lost her bra in the attack, and a bra was located beneath the seat in Beshaw's truck, according to charging documents.

In October, Trooper Wallner and Palmer Police investigators searched Beshaw's home on a warrant. There they found eye-cleaning solution one victim told police the rapist had used to wipe her and clean off evidence, Wallner said. Investigators also found a large quantity of surgical plastic gloves that one of the victims said she believed the suspect wore. Under a bed mattress, they found a carefully folded copy of the Frontiersman issue that ran the first rape story as its main headline, he said.

"He basically denied that he had anything to do with the rapes. He said he didn't read the Frontiersman, that he only reads the Anchorage Daily News, and he didn't know how the article got there," Wallner said.

No arrests could be made, Wallner said, until the state crime lab came back with physical evidence linking Beshaw to the crimes. Last week the lab finally released its DNA findings, and, on the strength of that information, the Palmer District Attorney Office authorized the arrest.

Beshaw has denied any knowledge of the attacks since the start, Wallner said. Beshaw's girlfriend, Crystal Seager, has told police that he was with her at the alleged times of the attacks. The couple moved to Glennallen this winter and were living on his parent's homestead when troopers made their arrest.

Beshaw was arraigned Saturday in Palmer Superior Court. A grand jury will hear the state's case Wednesday.