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Police: Man Stalked Female Jogger Along Bike Path Before Attack

(CBS) – Police continue to investigate the attack on a woman who was jogging along a popular north suburban bike trail over the weekend.

The 23-year-old victim was running Sunday afternoon where the North Shore Bike Path meets the Des Plaines River Trail by Route 176 in Libertyville.

The woman talked with CBS 2 about her ordeal and asked that her identity not be revealed.

"Right away, I thought this guy's not going to do anything to me. I'm not going to let him hurt me," says the jogger, who had scrapes and scratches on her legs.

She says when she approached the bridge at the Des Plaines River Trail it was flooded, so she crawled over the rocks to pass under the bridge. That's when she heard someone behind her.

"That's when I heard the rocks tumbling. And at that point I was grabbed," she says. "I hit him and I grabbed his arms to get him off of me. And I screamed for help."

She struggled to climb up near the busy Route 176.

"I screamed for help, and as soon as I screamed for help, he just bolted," the woman says.

Police are now working with video they've obtained from surveillance cameras at a gas station west of the scene -- video that could give them a license plate number and other details that could help them track the suspect.

 

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