Assault suspect caught in Ore.

Is taken to Mass., faces charges in Winchendon case

As a passenger on a bus, a hitchhiker grabbing rides from truck drivers, and a backpacker patiently plodding across the countryside, Michael Bresnahan made his way from Mass- achusetts to California and then to Oregon.

Yesterday, he returned, walking with leg shackles through Logan Airport surrounded by a clutch of Worcester County sheriff's deputies and some of the Massachusetts state troopers who spent months tracking him down.

Bresnahan, 36, is charged with burglarizing a Winchendon home on Aug. 30, 2007, and is expected to soon be charged in the sexual assault of a 61-year-old woman who had been sleeping inside.

"We brought him back to answer for the suffering he inflicted on his victim," Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. said in a statement yesterday.

State Police Sergeant David Skelly was one of the troopers escorting Bresnahan at Logan yesterday and is assigned to the Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section, which searched for the former Winchendon man before he fled.

Skelly said that during their search, they determined Bresnahan had taken a bus from Keene, N.H., to Columbus, Ohio, and then hopped rides with truck drivers to St. Joseph, Mo., Council Bluffs, Iowa, and then into Fresno, Calif.

"We were able to track him across the country," Skelly said, but were not able to pinpoint his exact location after he reached California. "He was just kind of backpacking and hitchhiking around."

Skelly said that in March, while using the alias of Aaron Anderson, Bresnahan was picked up hitchhiking by a woman who drove him to Cottage Grove, Ore.

He lived there until July when he and the woman argued.

She learned his true identity and went to police.

Meanwhile, the US Marshal Service had been tipped on Aug. 2 that Bresnahan had been spotted in Springfield, Ore., and then on Aug. 17 were alerted he was in Cottage Grove.

Police flooded the area with posters bearing Bresnahan's photograph, and he was arrested at gunpoint by Cottage Grove police on Aug. 18, authorities said.

The son of the woman Bresnahan is accused of attacking said in a phone interview yesterday that the family welcomed his return to Massachusetts and his impending prosecution.

"It was frustrating for him to be on the run," he said. "We are absolutely thrilled he is behind bars."

The victim's son publicly expressed his gratitude to Early and the law enforcement agencies, including Winchendon police, who pursued Bresnahan.

"Our family is very thankful for the dedication of all of the professionals in law enforcement who brought him to justice," he said.

"We had a lot of faith they would come through."

The Globe does not identify alleged sexual assault victims.

The victim's family helped in their own way by posting information about Bresnahan on MySpace and other websites.

The site was closed after Bresnahan was taken into custody.

Bresnahan is scheduled to be arraigned today in Winchendon District Court on one count of burglary, according to Early's office. He is likely to face additional charges for assaulting the woman at knifepoint during an attack that lasted two hours, prosecutors said.

The son said his mother plans to be in court today, hoping "it will bring some closure. That's the choice she made."

John Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com.