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.
