A 40-year-old woman who state police said was left for dead along Jacobs Creek survived a violent attack at the hands of a Mt. Pleasant man, according to court papers.

Charles Paul Etling, 39, told investigators he dragged the woman off the side of White Bridge Road near the creek in Mt. Pleasant Township on Thursday night and left her there because he thought he had killed her and he got scared, police said.

“It was a gruesome beating,” Trooper Steve Limani said.

Etling is charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, strangulation and reckless endangerment. He is being held in the Westmoreland County Prison without bail.

Etling and the woman went to Morgantown on Thursday and, during the trip back to Mt. Pleasant, they began to argue, according to court papers. Etling told investigators he “lost his temper” and started punching and choking the woman before dragging her out the driver’s side door.

“After choking her for the second time, she fell to the ground and was motionless/unconscious,” Trooper Evan Terek wrote in the complaint. “Etling did not believe the victim was breathing, and he was convinced that he had killed her.”

Etling told troopers he panicked, dragged her into a wooded area and fled, according to court papers. He and a friend started to drive back to the scene with a tarp to move her body, but, police said, Etling changed his mind and went home.

Etling reportedly called his sister at 5 a.m. Friday and told her he believed he had killed the woman. Troopers were called at 6:30 a.m. to his parents’ Mt. Pleasant Township home and took him into custody, according to court papers.

“(He’s) literally sitting down with our officers being interviewed … and we’re telling him, ‘Hey, she’s actually alive,’ ” Limani said.

Etling had three bloody scratches on his right forearm from the assault, troopers said.

The woman apparently awoke that morning in Jacobs Creek and walked downstream to Meadow Brook Road, not far from where she allegedly was left by Etling. Police said she had severe injuries on her head and face and her entire body was covered in dried mud. She was found by someone nearby at 11 a.m. Friday, Limani said.

She was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Etling did not have an attorney listed in online court records. A June 24 preliminary hearing is set.

Investigators don’t know much about the person, referred to as “Josh” in the criminal complaint, whom Etling said he met with after the beating to move the woman’s body. Anyone with information about his identity is asked to call state police at 724-832-3288.

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