MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — Police were looking for a man on Tuesday they say attacked and tried to rape a pregnant woman at a motel earlier that morning.
Police believe 37-year-old Jason Lee Axelson of Mount Vernon approached an employee who was cleaning a room at the Studio Six Motel about 9:45 a.m.
He asked for extra towels, Mountlake Terrace spokeswoman Penny Merkley said. As the woman turned to get the towels from her cart she was dragged back into the room she’d been cleaning.
The woman was choked and hit, but her screams alerted others, Merkley said.
The man escaped in his car, which was parked nearby.
He had been staying at the hotel for several days before the attack and left behind personal belongings and paperwork, said Mountlake Terrace police detective Sgt. Doug Hansen.
The woman was taken to the hospital with noncritical injuries, Hansen said. She had no connection to Axelson.
He may not have known the woman was pregnant, Hansen said.
Axelson is 6 foot, 4 inches tall, has blue eyes and weighs about 190 pounds. He may now have shaved his head and face. He was last seen driving a gray 2001 Audi A6 four-door, license number 514TMO.
Police are asking anyone who spots the suspect or his car to call 911.
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