BEDFORD TOWNSHIP (WKZO-AM) — A Battle Creek man has been charged with raping a 16-year-old girl at gunpoint in Bedford Township.
Police say they believe 31-year-old Allen French was familiar with the girl’s daily habit of getting off the school bus after school at Collier Avenue and Stuben Road in Bedford Township and using a private trail through the woods to her home.
They had seen each other in the woods and talked in the past. Major Jim Grafton said she was able to give investigators a good description of the man who attacked her Monday afternoon. With a check of the sex offender registry and based on her description, a K9 track and the fact that he pedaled away on a bike, they were able to quickly narrow in on French.
He has been ordered held without bond. He is charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct and could spend life in prison if convicted.
Grafton says they have surveillance video from businesses placing French and his bike in the area. They are now going to cross-reference unsolved rapes to see if French can be implicated.
