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Avon woman stabbed five times, suspect spotted with blood on his hands, pool of blood outside his door, police say

Randy Wyrick / Vail Daily
While a local physician was treating Andrew Young, he told her that he had stabbed an Avon woman. He stabbed her so hard he broke the knife, he said.
Randy Wyrick

AVON — The pool of blood outside an alleged stabber’s sliding glass apartment door told Avon police they had likely found their assailant.

Andrew Young Jr., 18, originally from Red Bank, New Jersey, told an Avon doctor earlier the morning of Thursday, May 31, that he stabbed a woman so hard that he broke the knife into two pieces, according to the arrest affidavit.

Avon Police Officer Randy Gray scoured the area where the attack happened and found the two pieces of the Pinnacle Cutlery kitchen knife blade. The handle was gone.



His partner, Avon Police Officer Chris Peck, followed a blood trail from the Eagle Valley recreation path to the sliding glass door outside the Liftview apartment where Young lives with his mother.

STABBED FIVE TIMES



According to the arrest affidavit, the call came in at 6:26 a.m. A local woman had been jogging on the Eagle Valley recreation path near The Westin Riverfront Resort & Spa when she was attacked, hit on the head and stabbed five times. Avon officers Peck and Gray responded in moments.

Avon Police Detective Toby Baldwin was on the case four minutes later.

The woman, who was in Vail Health Hospital for emergency treatment, told police she was jogging along the path when she heard someone running heavily up behind her. Young passed her and stopped running, she said.

That alarmed the woman and she stopped running, she said.

After a few moments, she decided to start running again, but as she passed Young, she felt a hard blow to the top of her head and then several smaller blows to the right side of her body. It felt like she was being stabbed.

She was. Five times.

Bleeding from her wounds, she still managed to run away from Young and escape, according to police reports. A couple other people on the scene administered life-saving first aid, Avon police said.

As she lay in a Vail Health hospital bed, she told police to look for a young, slender, light-skinned male with long black hair wearing mustard-colored pants, a gray hoodie, white shoes and black and white printed boxer briefs.

Police didn’t have to look far.

A local Avon doctor contacted police about Young, an 18-year-old she said she had treated earlier that morning.

Young told the doctor he had stabbed a woman who was running on the bike path, that he stabbed her so hard the kitchen knife broke.

Gray scoured the area and found the two pieces of the knife Young said he had used. The blade was broken and the handle was missing.

From there, Avon Police tracked Young to his mother’s residence in Avon’s Liftview apartments.

BLOOD ON HIS HANDS

When Young returned to their apartment around 6:30 a.m., his mother saw he had blood on his hands.

“Andrew told her that he had hurt someone, but she was fine,” the arrest affidavit said.

His mother told police she threw his clothes in the washing machine — mustard colored pants and a gray sweatshirt. She took Young to the doctor’s office.

So far, Young is booked on charges of attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault and felony menacing. An attempted murder conviction carries a sentence of up to 48 years in prison.

He made his first court appearance Friday afternoon, June 1. He is being held without bond in the Eagle County jail.

Staff Writer Randy Wyrick can be reached at 970-748-2935 and rwyrick@vaildaily.com.


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