Lamar County police have arrested a Purvis man for an attempted rape on the Longleaf Trace.
Lamar County Sheriff Danny Rigel said dispatch received a call at approximately 10:20 a.m. Dec. 8. regarding the incident. Deputies found that a 44-year-old woman was walking or jogging along the path when a white male came out of the woods and assaulted her.
“They scuffled, and she managed to get away from him, but he took her cell phone during the incident,” Rigel said.
Officers arrested 33-year-old Christopher Corey Welcher at the intersection of Scruggs Road and Mississippi 589 at about 1:18 the same day.
“He was coming out of the woods from the Rails to Trails,” Rigel said. “We located his car in the Epley Station parking lot, and we think he was trying to get back to his vehicle. We did recover (the victim’s cell phone).”
Welcher was taken into custody and is being charged with attempted rape.
