Alaska State Troopers arrested a 51-year-old man in Selawik for allegedly dragging a 21-year-old woman aboard a boat and threatening to sexually assault her.
The woman screamed for help and jumped overboard, into the Selawik River, according to a troopers dispatch, which said her "cries for help were heeded by other villagers, who came to her rescue" in the early hours of Saturday morning. Villagers took the woman to a clinic where she was treated for hypothermia and some cuts and bruises, troopers said. The woman was later released.
Troopers arrested Charles L. Myers Sr., 51, of Selawik, for kidnapping, reckless endangerment and driving under the influence, and said he would be taken to the Kotzebue jail, roughly 75 miles away, after arraignment.
At 3 a.m. the temperature in Selawik was approximately 57 degrees. Nearby water temperatures measured by the National Weather Service average around 50 degrees, which would quickly lessen a person's mobility and cause total exhaustion in about an hour, according to a federal advisory.