A bystander photographed the truck and heard the suspect deny responsibility at the scene, police say.
JUPITER, Fla. — A witness who thought she saw a branch fly through the air instead found an injured woman on Center Street, helping police build a case against a man accused of pushing her from a moving pickup.
The account became one of the central pieces in the arrest of Austin Arthur Pare, 29, on an aggravated battery with a deadly weapon charge. Jupiter police said the witness saw a matte gray pickup truck with white doors, confronted a man standing near the injured woman and later provided a statement that matched physical evidence found in the road.
The call came late April 15, near Center Street and Privateer Court. Police said multiple people reported seeing a blonde woman in the roadway with items scattered around her. One caller described blood, shoes, a wallet and a dark pickup truck close by. Another witness told investigators she watched something fly through the air and at first could not tell what it was. As she approached, she realized the object was a woman wearing a black tank top. The detail mattered because it placed a person, not just debris, in motion before the truck left the area. Police later said the woman’s injuries included abrasions to her arms and face, along with pain and distress seen at the hospital.
The witness saw a white man standing over the woman near the pickup, according to the affidavit. She told him he had hit the woman. Police said the man answered, “she did it to herself.” The witness then saw him drag the woman into the truck and flee. The witness also took a photo of the vehicle, which police used as they worked to identify it. Her account gave officers an immediate description: a matte gray truck, white doors and a man leaving with the woman after she had been seen on the road. When officers arrived, the people were gone, but the street still held blood and personal belongings.
Investigators found a phone, purse, shoes and a bloody towel in the roadway, police said. The purse contained identification for the injured woman, giving officers a name as they searched for her. The evidence also gave police a way to compare what callers had reported with what remained on Center Street. The scattered belongings suggested the woman had not simply walked away from a minor fall. The blood spatter and towel showed officers that the scene had involved visible injury. Police said the witness statements and the items at the scene supported further checks at the woman’s listed address and at local medical facilities.
The next break came at Jupiter Medical Center. Just after midnight, an off-duty officer working at the hospital saw the woman limp into the ambulance bay. She had visible abrasions and appeared fearful, police said. At first, she told officers she did not remember what had happened. That early uncertainty did not stop the investigation because the scene evidence and witness accounts already pointed to a pickup leaving Center Street with her inside. Hospital staff treated the woman while officers continued checking the truck description. Police said they later used FLOCK license plate recognition technology to identify the vehicle as a gray Dodge pickup.
While the woman was at the hospital, a receptionist received a phone call that police later described in the affidavit. The caller identified himself as “Austin” and asked about the woman by name. When asked how he knew her, police said he stated that she had jumped out of his car. The receptionist later gave a sworn statement. Police said the caller also described the relationship as a six-year dating relationship but would not come to the hospital, although he said he was nearby. The statement differed from what the witness had told police at the road scene, where the man allegedly said the woman had done it to herself after being confronted.
Police then spoke with the woman’s mother, who helped identify the pickup as belonging to Pare. The mother told investigators the couple had been together for about six years and described a history of alleged abuse. She said her daughter had previously reported being pushed from a moving vehicle. The affidavit does not say whether that earlier allegation became a separate criminal case. For this investigation, the mother’s information gave police context for the relationship and tied the truck description to a named suspect. It also helped officers understand why the injured woman’s first statements might have been limited after she arrived at the hospital in pain.
After additional questioning and after speaking with her mother, the woman gave police a detailed account. She said she and Pare had been drinking on the beach before an argument started. The argument continued in the truck, she said. On Center Street, she told police, Pare pushed her out while the pickup was moving. She said he then intentionally struck her with the vehicle, causing more injuries. According to the affidavit, Pare then loaded her back into the truck and drove away. The woman told investigators she was in and out of consciousness after that. When she woke up alone in the truck, she got out and limped away to seek help.
The woman also told police that Pare’s mother later picked her up and started driving her to the hospital. During that drive, the woman said, Pare’s mother threatened to harm her and her mother if she told police what had happened. Available reports do not show that Pare’s mother had been charged in connection with that allegation. The public record identifies Pare as the person arrested in the aggravated battery case. The injured woman was not named in public accounts. Police described her as the victim in the affidavit and said her condition at the hospital included visible abrasions, pain and fear.
Pare was booked in Palm Beach County on April 28. Public booking information lists the charge as aggravated battery with a deadly weapon under Florida law. Police said the pickup was the alleged deadly weapon. Bond was set at $40,000, and Pare was scheduled to return to court July 2. The case remains at an early stage, with the probable cause affidavit outlining the basis for arrest. Prosecutors still must present the charge in court, and Pare is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
The witness account stands out because it connected the roadway scene to the later hospital investigation. The witness described the woman flying through the air, the man standing near her, the statement that she did it to herself and the truck leaving after the woman was dragged inside. Other evidence then filled in the path: the belongings left behind, the hospital arrival, the call from “Austin,” the mother’s identification of the truck and the woman’s later sworn account. Police said those pieces together supported the arrest.
Pare’s July 2 court hearing in Palm Beach County is the next public milestone. Until then, the case rests on the affidavit’s account of what witnesses saw, what officers found and what the injured woman later told police.
Author note: Last updated May 22, 2026.