Story of woman who was missing takes twist
A man is accused of assaulting his girlfriend, who later was reported missing from her Clearfield Township home and became the subject of an extensive search last month.
State police Friday arrested Eric A. Drake, 31, of Worth Township, on assault charges in two separate cases. He also was arraigned Monday on still other assault charges in a third case.
Police said additional assault charges are pending in a fourth case that dates to last year in Slippery Rock Township.
He is on house arrest after posting $25,000 bail Tuesday. He also must wear a Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitoring bracelet, a device that is strapped to the ankle and regularly samples a person's perspiration.
Drake's arrest came one week after troopers posted Oct. 23 on Twitter to alert the public that 24-year-old Brittany Omstead was missing. She apparently was last seen around 10:30 a.m. at a Butler Township house that she was watching for a friend.
Omstead's mother told police that her daughter had gone to her home to confront the defendant, with whom she was living, about his “excessive drinking,” according to charging documents, and about his getting “kicked out” of the police academy at Indiana University of Pennsylvania earlier that day.
Later that afternoon, she failed to show up at a friend's wedding rehearsal.
The mother went to her daughter's home, where she found Omstead's car, the keys to the car and her cellphone. According to investigators, blood was found on the phone.
Police subsequently listed Omstead as a “missing/endangered person.”
Troopers interviewed Drake, and he admitted to assaulting Omstead during previous domestic-related incidents, police said.
Police led a search of several properties in the county, looking for Omstead. Other agencies and volunteers assisted, but they could not find her Oct. 23.
But just before 9 p.m. Oct. 24, while troopers were searching near Omstead's home, they saw her running toward the home from a field.
The woman, police said, was medically examined and found to have bruising on her body, a contusion on her head and other minor injuries.
During an Oct. 28 interview at the barracks, documents said, she gave police “a detailed history of prior domestic violence incidents where she was assaulted by Drake.”
She recounted that on the afternoon of Oct. 23 at her home, police said, the defendant pushed her down, causing the head contusion and a bloody nose. She eventually fled the home to get away from Drake.
He is charged in the incident with simple assault, a misdemeanor, and harassment, a summary. He was arraigned Friday.
Omstead also recounted an incident that occurred in August or September at their home during which he allegedly placed her in a chokehold that “impeded her breathing,” police said.
Drake is charged in that incident with strangulation, a felony, simple assault and harassment. He was arraigned Oct. 30.
Additionally, Omstead told police of another assault that occurred in February at a home in Butler Township in which the defendant allegedly choked her and pointed a loaded handgun at her, documents said.
Drake, in that incident, was arraigned Tuesday on felony charges of strangulation and aggravated assault, misdemeanor charges of terroristic threats, simple assault and reckless endangerment, and a summary charge of harassment.
Online court records did not list an attorney for him.
