A heads-up Phoenix police crime analyst and good old-fashioned police work helped identify and arrest a sexual assault suspect less than 48 hours after the attack.
On Sept. 13, 2021, just after 7:30 a.m., Phoenix officers responded to the canal bank in the area of 200 East Las Palmaritas Drive. When officers got there, they contacted a woman who reported that she had been attacked and sexually assaulted by an unknown male, who fled the area prior to police arrival.
Detectives, patrol officers and civilian analysists immediately began working relentlessly on this case. The victim was able to assist a forensic artist in creating a sketch to circulate to the public. As part of that investigation, a crime analyst took the initiative to compare the sketch, being readied for release, to recent booking photos. The analyst not only recognized a similarity between the sketch and a recently arrested suspect, but the analyst noticed the shirt the suspect was wearing in the booking photo, matched the descrption of the shirt the sexual assault victim provided to detectives.
That suspect was arrested for a misdemeanor assault for an incident that took place the morning after the canal attack. The second assault occurred, on Sept. 14, 2021, at about 6 a.m., in the area of 7th Avenue and Campbell Avenue. The victim from that incident was walking on 7th Avenue when an adult male assaulted and tackled the victim to the ground. Two Good Samaritans intervened and restrained the male suspect until police arrived. That suspect, Charles Torbeck Jn Michely was arrested and booked into Maricopa County Jail for one count of assault.
While pursuing the similarity between the sketch and Michely, detectives learned that Michely was wearing a GPS ankle monitor. Data from that monitor placed him in the area of the canal sexual assault, and the victim in that case was able to identify Michely in a photographic lineup, as the man who attacked her.
Additional booking charges were added to Michely including attempted murder, sexual assault, and kidnapping.
Republished courtesy of Phoenix Police Department. Photo credit: PPD.