Rape suspect captured in Moses Lake

MOSES LAKE - Moses Lake police arrested Jerald W. Thomas Jr., 33 for the abduction and rape of a Big Bend Community College student this morning.

Thomas was booked into the Grant County Jail for kidnapping in the first degree and rape in the first degree, according to Grant County Sheriff Tom Jones.

Police found Thomas at a bus stop on Kittleson Road near state Route 17 in Moses Lake at 9:15 a.m., Jones stated.

Thomas is suspected of abducting a 19-year-old female college student by using a knife to threaten her in a campus parking lot. He allegedly tried to use her ATM card before driving her to the dunes and raping her.

The arrest was made after the Columbia Basin Herald's Tuesday edition was printed. Coverage continues in Wednesday's newspaper.