Mounties in North Vancouver say tips from the public helped them identify a suspect in a sexual assault that occurred on a well-known hiking trail in the district last month.
Twenty-two-year-old Jairus-Paul Covacha Sacramento, of Mission, BC, has been charged with sexual assault, North Vancouver RCMP said at a news conference Saturday evening.
The charge stems from an incident that happened in Lynn Canyon Park on Feb. 13. A woman was exiting the Varley Trail loop and crossing the foot bridge to Rice Lake Road around 1:30 pm that day when a man allegedly grabbed her buttocks from behind , police said at the time.
Mounties issued an initial public appeal on Feb. 14, and made a second request for assistance in identifying the suspect on March 10.
The following day, March 11, officers from the Abbotsford Police Department arrested Sacramento at a worksite in that city’s South Poplar neighborhood, RCMP said Saturday.
The arrest was the result of a tip from the public, Mounties said.
“We asked for the public’s help to identify (the suspect), and you came through,” said Sgt. Peter DeVries, spokesperson for North Vancouver RCMP, at the news conference.
“We’re here today, in part, to say thank you for your assistance in helping us further this investigation.”
DeVries added that Sacramento is not known to police from any previous arrests. Online court records show a variety of traffic violations connected to a person named Jairus-Paul Covacha Sacramento, but no Criminal Code charges.