RALEIGH — A Greensboro man was arrested today after showing up at the Wake County Magistrate's Office to ask why law enforcement officers in Greensboro were looking for him.

Officials aren't sure what Tareyton Williams III, 34, was doing in Raleigh. But he came with his father to the Wake magistrate's office and asked the magistrate to check and see why Guilford County authorities had left their business cards in the door of Williams' Greensboro apartment.

Williams took a seat in the lobby of the magistrate's office while the magistrate looked up his name in the North Carolina court system.

Deputies with the Wake County Sheriff's Office then arrived to arrest Williams on charges that he sliced a woman's throat with a box cutter and smothered her with a pillow after forcibly raping her, according to court records filed at the Magistrate's Office.

The deputies transported Williams to the Wake County jail, where he is being held under a $3 million bail while he awaits extradition back to Greensboro, court records show.

Greensboro police have charged Williams with attempted murder, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree sex offense, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and two counts of first-degree rape, according to arrest warrants.

Greensboro police think the incident occurred on Sept. 16, court records show.

It is the policy of The News & Observer to not reveal the name of a victim of an alleged sex offense.

Williams remained in custody this afternoon. The magistrate's office reported that Williams' bail had been set at a high amount because the medical condition of the victim is unknown and the violent nature of the crime means a suspect could pose a grave danger to society.

tmcdonal@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4533