Penticton RCMP are searching for a man who allegedly held a 22-year-old woman hostage, sexually assaulting and brutally beating her for hours, while her toddler was nearby.
Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said that 35-year-old David Wesley Bobbitt of Penticton is accused of attempted murder after the severely injured woman was found bound in his second-hand store on Sunday. The woman's 22-month-old son was found nearby in the store unharmed.
"She's had to have quite a lot of her hair removed to suture up multiple lacerations," Moskaluk said. "The brutality of the assault is quite evident in the injuries that she received and the mere fact that there was a child nearby is very disturbing in itself -- that this individual allegedly carried this assault out with this child in the same premise."
The woman and her son were reported missing by her family after she didn't show up to drop off the child before going to work on Saturday.
Later that night, the woman's family located her car parked on Ellis Street in downtown Penticton.
Police searched the area and found the rear door of Bobbitt's store -- Dave's Second Hand -- ajar and found the woman and her baby inside.
"Investigators are treating the matter as a violent, aggravated sexual assault and due to the fact that the victim was unknown to Bobbitt, he is considered as a threat to public safety. We need to locate this man," Moskaluk said in a release.
The woman and toddler were taken to hospital. On Sunday, the woman remained in hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
Bobbitt is a white male, 5-7 and 180 pounds. He has brown eyes, brown, balding hair with no facial hair.
Investigators would like to speak to anyone who may have been at Dave's Second Hand store on Saturday July 30.
Police are asking anyone who sees Bobbitt, or knows where he is, to immediately call 911. Anyone with information regarding the incident can contact the Penticton RCMP at 250-492-4300 or via Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Kent Molgat
