Lawrence massage therapist arrested in alleged sexual assault investigation

A Lawrence massage therapist has been arrested after police say a 19-year-old woman reported being sexually assaulted during a session at Lawrence Thai Massage, raising fresh concerns for clients who trust local wellness businesses with intimate, hands-on care.

The Douglas County Jail booking log identifies the man as Joshua Salazar, 31. Police said he was booked on April 29 and later released while the investigation continued. Detectives sent an affidavit describing the alleged nonconsensual sexual contact to the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office for charging consideration, but formal charges had not been announced. Officers were dispatched moments after the reported incident, and crime scene technicians collected evidence that is now being processed.

Lawrence police are asking anyone who visited Lawrence Thai Massage and experienced inappropriate behavior to contact investigators at 785-843-0250 and reference incident L26022843. The business is listed at 951 E. 23rd St., at the corner of 23rd Street and Haskell Avenue, a busy east Lawrence intersection that many residents know from daily errands and neighborhood traffic.

The case lands in a county that has already seen serious massage-related sex-crime prosecutions. In Baldwin City, Aaron Paul Borger of Om Grown Yoga & Wellness Collective was later charged with 11 counts total, including two rape charges, five aggravated sexual battery counts and four sexual battery misdemeanors. Police said the alleged offenses spanned from 2024 through April 2026, and a Baldwin City Police Department release said the studio’s owners assisted the investigation from the outset and focused on victim well-being and identifying additional victims.

Douglas County also has a more distant but still vivid precedent: Shawn P. O’Brien, a Lawrence massage therapist, was convicted in 2021 of eight sex-crime counts and sentenced to life imprisonment. Together, those cases underscore how violations in therapeutic settings can carry lasting harm because they exploit privacy, physical access and trust.

Lawrence has long said that bodywork oversight is part of public protection. The city adopted Ordinance No. 9305 in 2018 to license and regulate bodywork practitioners within city limits, and in 2019 city officials told state lawmakers that massage licensure would benefit the health, safety and welfare of Kansans. That local framework exists because complaints in this field can involve both criminal conduct and the basic boundaries that should govern any massage session.

Anyone who believes they were assaulted or touched inappropriately during a massage should preserve texts, receipts, appointment records and names of staff, then report the conduct to police as soon as possible. Crime Stoppers of Lawrence and Douglas County also accepts anonymous tips, giving investigators another route to identify possible additional victims as the case moves forward.