Suspect arrested in Missouri driving stolen car
23-year-old alleged rape victim identifies photo of attacker
By Kevin Kelley
Westlake
WEB UPDATED 4:20 P.M., JUNE 22, 2006

Police mugshot of Curtis D. Sovern

Police sketch of suspect

The 23-year-old Brazillian au pair allegedly abducted and raped in Westlake early Wednesday has identified by photograph the man who assaulted her, police said.

Curtis D. Sovern, 37, was arrested Wednesday evening by the Missouri State Highway Patrol. He was driving the stolen 1999 Honda the woman had been about to enter when the assault reportedly took place. The car was bearing New Jersey license plates when it was stopped on Interstate 70 near Boonville, Mo.

Westlake Police said the victim immediately identified Sovern as the man who assaulted her when she viewed a photo spread which included a mug shot of the suspect. She then became emotionally overwrought, police said.

"She was immediate. She was emphatic," Westlake Police Capt. Guy Turner said describing the victim's identification of Sovern as the suspect. "She started crying. She called him a bad word."

Sovern acknowledged involvement in an auto theft, police said, but admitted to nothing else. A black BB gun and the victim's purse were found inside the vehicle, police said.

Sovern's connection to Northeast Ohio, if any, is unknown. He has no known record, Turner said. He added Sovern's name did not appear in any criminal databases commonly used by police. Turner asked for anyone who has had contact or worked with him in Northeast Ohio to contact the Westlake Police.

Charges against him were scheduled to be presented to a Cuyahoga County grand jury Thursday morning. The process of extraditing him to Ohio was expected to begin after indictments were made. If Sovern fights extradition, the process could take weeks or months, Turner said.

Sovern is currently being held in the Cooper County Jail in Missouri.

The 1999 Honda, which belonged to the family the au pair was working for, was in the custody of the Missouri State Highway Patrol pending processing for evidence, police said. The au pair had permission to use the car from the family.

The au pair reported she had been abducted at gunpoint from a parking lot on the east side of the Promenade shopping center on Detroit Road just after midnight Wednesday morning by a white male wielding a black semiautomatic handgun.

The suspect was described as in his 30s,about 5-10 with a stocky build, a potbelly and a double chin. He was clean-shaven with dirty brown straight hair. He was said to be wearing a matching blue or black jogging outfit, gray tennis shoes and a blue baseball cap with an unknown logo on it.

The suspect came up to the woman and asked her for a cigarette. He then reportedly covered the woman's head and forced her into the passenger seat, and later the trunk, of the Honda.

A Cleveland patrolman spotted the car in the Slavic Village area around 2 a.m. The officer randomly checked the car's license plate number with a police database. But because no police report had been filed at the time, no alerts about the car came back and the officer took no action.

The woman told police she was sexually assaulted twice. After being driven around for about four hours, the woman was released on Lands End Lane in Westlake. She went to the nearby home of Browns offensive lineman Ryan Tucker, whose wife called police.

"She was lying in the fetal position on the front porch, crying hysterically," Tucker told The Plain Dealer. "She looked up and said, 'Help me. Help me.' "

A Westlake Fire Department ambulance took her to St. John West Shore Hospital for treatment. She had minor abrasions, police said.