A man injured near Cambridge last month was attacked and beaten as he waited for the arrival of a tow service he called when his vehicle stalled, Undersheriff Bill Mueller said Friday.
Matthew McIntosh, 30, Wichita, is recovering from a head injury and is out of the hospital. Mueller said the man was even making plans to pick up his vehicle.
"We really don’t a lot more than we did but we know someone assaulted him, beat him up pretty badly," he said. "From the time he called for the wrecker until the time it arrived, something happened to him."
An interview with McIntosh failed to provide much more information about what happened. It’s not uncommon, the undersheriff said, for victims of violent crime to suppress memories of traumatic events.
"It’s one of the body’s coping mechanisms," Mueller said.
Around 9 p.m. April 24, a tow truck driver found McIntosh badly injured and bleeding profusely just a few miles east of Cambridge. He was airlifted to a Wichita hospital.
McIntosh was on his way to see relatives in Sedan when his car broke down and he pulled to the side of the road. The tow truck driver found McIntosh unconscious in his car and called authorities to report a car accident.
But investigators were unable to find any evidence an accident occurred.
Mueller said the Cowley County Sheriff’s Office is following up on leads. It’s not clear yet whether McIntosh’s attacker, or attackers, knew him or just saw a motorist stranded on the road.
"If it’s someone who knew him we have a chance to find out what happened," Mueller said. "If it was just a random act, it’ll be much, much tougher."
