Police identify suspect in hotel elevator attack
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Michael Furman
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Police identified a West Virginia man as a suspect in an attempted sexual assault in a hotel elevator after a second woman came forward to say the same man had hit on her at the hotel and left her his cell phone number.
Police traced the number to Michael Furman, 28, of Weirton, and obtained a warrant for his arrest on charges of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and unlawful restraint in an incident Monday night at the Hyatt Regency Pittsburgh International Airport.
In that case, a 27-year-old East Pittsburgh woman told police a man stabbed her in the elevator of the hotel, where she was staying with her husband on the eve of their honeymoon.
Detectives received several tips after surveillance images of the man were publicized, including one from a second woman who said she and her boyfriend had encountered a man, later identified as Mr. Furman, on Jan. 26 in the Hyatt parking lot.
She said the man emerged from a white car with tinted windows and helped her and her boyfriend with their luggage, police said. While the boyfriend was checking in to the hotel, Mr. Furman made small talk with the woman, said his name was Mike and gave her his phone number.
"She thought he was high, and she thought he was just trying to hit on her," so she dismissed the confrontation until news of the attack aired, Lieutenant Jeffrey Korczyk said. "It seems he's escalating in his attempts to have confrontations with women he just meets on the street."
Detectives traced the phone number to a cell phone belonging to Mr. Furman's aunt. They visited her home in Weirton in search of him, but he had left, likely on foot. Mr. Furman's aunt and other friends and relatives identified him as the man in surveillance images, Mr. Korczyk said.
Police searched a white Lincoln Continental parked outside the home and found knives as well as a hat that appeared to be the one worn by the man in surveillance photos.
It's unclear what brought Mr. Furman to the airport on either occasion. Employees there said they didn't recognize him.
Mr. Korczyk said Mr. Furman has a criminal history in West Virginia that includes weapons, theft and burglary charges. Police described him as a 5-foot-6, "chubby" white man, with sandy blonde hair that is spiked.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts is urged to call county police at 412-473-1200.
First Published February 5, 2011 12:00 am
