$1 Million Bail Set, Attempted Murder Charge For Man Accused Of Strangling, Kidnapping Girl

WORCESTER COUNTY, MA—Bail has been set at $1 million and an attempted murder warrant has been issued to the Worcester man accused of kidnapping, strangling, and then throwing a 7-year-old girl off a bridge into a lake over the weekend, according to District Attorney Joe Early.

Joshua Hubert, 35, will be arraigned on an attempted murder charge at Westborough District Court on Tuesday, Sept. 5. A time was not set for the arraignment.

Hubert was arrested at the Worcester Police station and was initially charged with kidnapping the girl early Sunday morning. The girl survived the fall, swimming to a shore in Shrewsbury to seek help at a nearby home.

Hubert's attorney is denying that Hubert tossed anyone off of a bridge, reports WHDH, Channel 7 News.

The victim was at that family party at her grandparents’ house on Forestdale Road in Worcester, said police. Around 2:30 a.m., she was taken from that home by a "family friend" without permission, police said in a release. Hubert was reportedly a guest at the party, but took the girl without the parents' permission.

Around 3 a.m. Sunday, the girl was discovered in Shrewsbury. She talked to Shrewsbury police, sparking a collaboration with Worcester officers and detectives as well as the Massachusetts State Police.

Huburt was also subsequently suspended from his school job. Rob Gustavson, head of the Fay School in Southborough, issued a notice to the community on Tuesday that addressed the incident involving Hubert.

Hubert, according to the letter, was still in a probationary period working at the school in the technology department. He had passed CORI and SORI checks, and also fingerprinting, and received recommendations. The Fay School educates students from Kindergarten to ninth grade.Hubert was hired in early July, and had only worked for seven weeks at the school.

According to the letter, Hubert has been suspended indefinitely and is not allowed on the school campus pending the police investigation. According to officials, Hubert did not have any unsupervised interactions over the past seven weeks with any students in the summer programs.

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