A man sought by police in connection with a sexual assault case died Friday after he leapt from the top of the IU HealthBloomington Hospital parking garage in an apparent suicide.
BPD Sgt. Cody Forston said police had been looking for Craig Wade, 54, after the rape was reported the night before, but they hadn’t been able to find him. Early the next morning, police received a call that maintenance staff at the hospital had found a body.
The officer who arrived at the scene recognized the body as the suspect in the rape case, Forston said.
The initial assault was reported at around 8 p.m. Thursday at an apartment complex on the north side of town, Lt. John Kovach said.
He said Wade and the woman who accused him, who is 20, lived in the same apartment complex. The woman told police Wade invited her into his apartment to talk. Once there, she reported, he slapped her and forced her onto the bed where he made her give oral sex before he raped her.
Once he was done, she said, he told her to leave.
Wade came to her door a while later when she told him she had called the police, she said, and at this statement, he fled.
The call about the suicide came as police were searching for Wade Friday morning.
No foul play was suspected in this incident, Forston said, making the death an apparent suicide. Kovach said police checked video cameras from the garage and the video showed that Wade had jumped on his own.
Wade had a criminal record with charges varying from driving with a suspended license to burglary and dealing methamphetamine. The investigation of the rape is now closed, as Kovach said no follow-up investigation is necessary.
