A Minneapolis man hid in his ex-girlfriend's St. Paul apartment, waited for her to return and then threatened her with a knife and raped her, according to charges filed Friday.

Alec E. Neal, 30, is charged in Ramsey County District Court with first-degree criminal sexual conduct (commonly referred to as rape), kidnapping and first-degree burglary for the Wednesday and Thursday attack in the woman's apartment.

Neal fled to Iowa but drove back to Minnesota in the early morning hours Thursday, when police arrested him after a high-speed chase through the south metro.

According to the complaint: Police were called to the woman's apartment building about 12:10 a.m. Thursday. The woman, who had a cut on her left hand, had sought help at a neighbor's apartment.

She told police that Neal, whom she had dated from May 2014 to early 2015, had raped her and attacked her with a knife. On Valentine's Day, the woman told police, she found an obscene note stuck to her apartment door. Neal had recently been released from a hospital's mental health unit, she told authorities.

The woman returned home from a trip Wednesday and called a friend about 9:15 p.m., telling the friend about the note and describing it as "creepy."

The woman went to bed, then awoke about 11:30 p.m. to find Neal sitting naked next to her on the bed.

"He was holding a serrated slicing knife from the kitchen," the charges said.

Neal allegedly ordered the woman to remove her clothes and said he would not hurt her if she complied.

"He said something about her phone conversation with her friend, and he made reference to her statement that the note was creepy," the charges said.

Neal allegedly held the knife to the woman's throat and raped her. She fled through a door in a closet that led out a common hall as Neal was getting dressed.

Neal slashed at the woman as she fled and cut her hand, the complaint said.

He then fled. When police arrived at the apartment building, they found a roll of duct tape in the hall. (Additional rolls of duct tape were later recovered in Neal's car.)

Neal called the woman as she was being treated at the hospital. He allegedly told her he was going to the Gulf of Mexico. The woman, who was acting on police instructions, asked him to return to Minnesota.

Police intercepted Neal on Thursday a few hours after midnight on Interstate 35 near 185th Street in Lakeville. They pursued Neal, whose car traveled between 80 to 110 miles an hour, until it hit stop sticks that police had deployed, lost a tire and crashed on northbound Cedar Avenue near the Cliff Road overpass in Eagan.

The 13-mile pursuit lasted about 10 minutes. Neal is charged in Dakota County District Court with fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle.

Neal is being held in the Ramsey County jail and will make his first court appearance Monday, where a prosecutor plans to argue for $500,000 bail.

Chao Xiong • 612-270-4708