38 year-old Dennis Morgan is in the Missoula County Jail on $25,000 bond after allegedly beating and strangling a woman, threatening her with a knife and breaking her phone when she attempted to call 9-1-1, while staying in an Airbnb.

Court records indicate that the unidentified woman feared for her life during the attack and pleaded with the suspect to let her live because she had two daughters.

She was eventually able to flee the scene in a vehicle and after attempting to signal oncoming traffic of her distress, stopped at the Huson bar and asked for help. She hid behind the bar while an employee contacted Missoula County Sheriff’s Deputies.

They found the suspect walking along I-90 and he was arrested and booked into the Missoula County Jail.

Morgan, an accountant and software engineer from Oregon has been charged with Aggravated Assault, Assault with a Weapon, Strangulation and Destruction or Tampering with a Communication Device.

At his Missoula Justice Court appearance on Tuesday, Deputy County Attorney Jordan Kilby asked Judge Alex Beal for $25,000 bond.

“He starts with aggravated assault for strangling his partner,” said Kilby. “He threw her off of the bed causing her to become unconscious and she was diagnosed with a severe concussion. She woke up in the bed not knowing how she got there after this happened. She woke up to him packing up the car. At some point she tried to call 9-1-1 and he broke her phone.”

Kilby continued with what she termed a ‘harrowing experience’.

“After he left the apartment she tried to barricade the door with a chair, but he broke the chair,” she continued. “He grabbed her, covered her mouth so that no one would hear her and threw her into the back seat of the car. She again pretended to be asleep as they drove down Interstate 90. He got out of the vehicle to use the restroom, and she jumped in the front of the vehicle and drove off.”

Kilby pointed out that Morgan does not live in Montana and asked Judge Beal for $25,000 bond to ensure his appearance in court.

Judge Beal set bail at $25,000 and Morgan was remanded back to the jail. He is to have no contact with the victim or her two daughters.

Court records state that the two were in Missoula to attend a funeral when the incident occurred. His preliminary hearing was set for November 22.

 

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