Tag: kidnappings

63-year-old kidnap victim escapes trunk after car crashes into Seattle home

A kidnapping victim who was beaten, bound, and then forced into the trunk of his own car narrowly escaped after the suspected kidnappers crashed the vehicle into a residential home.

The Seattle Police Department received multiple calls early Thursday morning that a car had crashed into a home in the Ravenna, Seattle, neighborhood and caught fire.

“I heard a screeching noise and then just the most sickening crunch,” neighbor Cheng Yu told KING 5.

When officers arrived on the scene just after 5 a.m., witnesses reported a man claiming he had been kidnapped crawled out of the trunk of the fiery vehicle.

Before emergency personnel arrived on the scene, startled residents noticed the car had begun to catch fire and starting to spread to the corner of the home.


Neighbors reported hearing screams from within the car as it was on fire before the victim appeared from the trunk.
Seattle Police Department

Homeowner Brooks Mierow told the outlet he quickly got his family out of the home, grabbing a fire extinguisher to put out the flames before firefighters arrived. 

As Mierow fought the fire, Yu was on the phone with 911 dispatchers when they heard muffled screams from inside the vehicle.

“We heard a screaming of, ‘Ahh, ahh.’ I think he was trying to scream for help,” Yu told KING 5.

Witnesses were in shock as the victim, a 63-year-old unidentified male, frantically crawled out from the vehicle’s trunk.


Aftermath of crash.
Luckily because of the homeowner’s efforts to extinguish the fire before emergency personnel arrived, the home wasn’t severely burnt from the crash.
Youtube/KING 5 Seattle

Still bound and panicking, the victim was seen screaming that he had been “kidnapped” and needed help by the trunk of his car when neighbor Raegan McKibbon arrived to assist the man.

McKibbon — who told the outlet she saw two men fleeing from the scene after the crash — took the victim across the street and gave him socks and a coat as they waited for police and the fire department to arrive.

“He was beat up pretty bad. They had cut his face with a knife and had beat him up pretty badly,” McKibbon said.

The Seattle Fire Department was able to extinguish the fire before it spread further to Mierow’s home, while also treating the victim for non-life-threatening injuries.


The suspected kidnappers have yet to be apprehended by law enforcement.
Youtube/KING 5 Seattle

Part of the vehicle’s bumper was lying in the home’s yard. Police continue their investigations into the kidnapping, which lead to the car wreck.
Youtube/KING 5 Seattle

The victim was then taken to Harborview Medical Center, The Seattle Police Department reported.

Yu, who was glad the victim was in care and that no one else was hurt, was in disbelief at the incident.

“You can’t make this stuff up. It’s just so absurd,” Yu told KING 5.

A spokesperson for the department, Officer Judinna Gulpan, told the outlet that the kidnapping did not appear to be targeted.

The victim reported to investigators that several individuals had assaulted him before he was tied up and stuffed into the trunk of his car.

No arrests have been made.  

Detectives did detain one 18-year-old male for questioning, who matched the description of a possible suspect, but he was later released.

Police are asking anyone with information involving the kidnapping attempt to call the SPD Violent Crimes Tip Line at (206) 233-5000.

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Mexican authorities find Washington state 8-year-old missing since 2018, returned to US

A Washington state 8-year-old missing since 2018 was recently found in Mexico and returned to the US, according to the FBI.

Aranza Maria Ochoa Lopez was kidnapped by her biological mother on Oct. 25, 2018, at a Vancouver, Washington, shopping mall, according to the FBI.

She was found and safely recovered by Mexican authorities in February in Michoacán.

FBI special agents escorted Lopez back to the US after she was found.

When the 8-year-old was kidnapped, the FBI determined that she was taken to Mexico.

Her mother was taken into custody in September 2019 in Puebla, Mexico, but the 8-year-old wasn’t found.

Richard A. Collodi, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle field office, said that law enforcement never gave up on finding Lopez.

“For more than four years, the FBI and our partners did not give up on Aranza,” Collodi said. “Our concern now will be supporting Aranza as she begins her reintegration into the U.S.”

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Mexico kidnapping survivor Eric James Williams mourns ‘brothers’ killed by cartel: wife

One of the survivors of the Mexico cartel kidnapping is mourning the loss of his two murdered friends — who he viewed as his “brothers,” his wife said Tuesday.

Michelle Williams told CNN she was able to speak to her husband, Eric James Williams, shortly after police rescued him and fellow American Latavia “Tay” McGee from the wooden shack they had been held in since last week.

Friends Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brow, who had crossed the border with Williams and McGee, were found dead.


Shaeed Woodard was identified as one of the American victims found dead.
Facebook

Williams — who suffered three gunshot wounds to his legs — was emotional when speaking with his wife and 11-year-old son later Tuesday.

“I was just glad to hear his voice,” Michelle Williams told CNN.

The four friends from South Carolina were captured shortly after arriving Friday in the crime-ridden city of Matamoros so McGee would undergo a tummy tuck operation.


Latavia McGee was scheduled for a tummy tuck surgery on the day of the kidnapping, her mother Barbara Burgess said.
Facebook

Michelle had no idea where her husband had gone — just that he was helping out some pals — until FBI agents showed up at her door Sunday, she told South Carolina TV station WBTW.

“I didn’t hear from him after Friday,” she said. “Friday morning he texted me and I texted him back immediately. He didn’t respond so I’m going to assume that’s when he was ambushed.”

Agents told her the foursome came under fire after entering Matamoros, which caused them to crash their white minivan.

The group was abducted in Matamoros, Mexico last week.
The foursome from South Carolina was abducted at gunpoint in broad daylight on March 3.
AP


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Forensic technicians work at the scene where authorities found the bodies of two of four Americans kidnapped by gunmen, in Matamoros, Mexico.
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Mexican army soldiers prepare a search mission for the four U.S. citizens kidnapped by gunmen in Matamoros, Mexico, on March 6, 2023.
AP


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The on-camera abduction shows the kidnappers — likely Gulf Cartel members — holding the friends at gunpoint to force them into the back of a pickup truck.

The captives were moved throughout the city multiple times in order to evade authorities before they were tracked down to a storage shed Tuesday.

One person has been arrested in the kidnapping so far — Jose Guadalupe N., a 24-year-old Mexican national who was guarding the shack when police arrived.


Jose Guadalupe “N” was allegedly guarding the shack when police found the four kidnapped Americans.
Getty Images

Police are still working to uncover a motive for the kidnapping, but theorize the friends were confused with Haitian drug smugglers.

The FBI had offered a $50,000 reward for the victims’ return and the arrest of the abductors.

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Colorado Walmart kidnapping stopped by bystanders

Brave bystanders lept into action Thursday to stop a woman from kidnapping a child from a Colorado Walmart, police said.

Shoppers restrained alleged kidnapper Kimberli Jones, 50, until police arrived, the city of Alamosa said.

Jones allegedly snatched “a young child” from a shopping cart inside a Walmart just before 1 p.m., cops said.

Bystanders quickly stopped Jones from stealing the kid and held her until police arrived.


Bystanders spring into action to stop a would-be kidnapper from taking a child from a Colorado Walmart.
Google Maps

The innocent child was reunited safely with their parents.

Jones was slapped with kidnapping, felony menacing, child abuse and disorderly conduct,

“The Alamosa Police Department would like to thank the brave citizens, Wal-Mart staff, and community for the quick response and for being alert,” police said.

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Iowa gun-toting mother stops duo from kidnapping her son: reports

An armed mother in Iowa fended off two people who attempted to take her son while in a Des Moines skywalk, by drawing her gun, according to reports.

Fox station KDSM in Des Moines, Iowa reported that two people, later identified as Michael Ernest Ross, 43, and Laurie Lynn Potter, 57, repeatedly walked in front of the Hubbell Tower Apartments door on Jan. 5.

Apartment manager Shay Lindberg, whose son was at her side, eventually opened the door to ask Ross and Potter if there was a problem. Then, one of the two attempted to snatch the child, but Lindberg was armed.

Sergeant Paul Parizek of the Des Moines Police Department told KDSM that this was an example of someone possessing a gun legally and doing something well with the gun.

“It certainly looks like the big turning point here, the pivotal piece to keeping her child safe was the fact that she was lawfully-armed with a handgun, and she produced it and told them ‘let go of my kid,’” Parizek said.

Lindberg then called Will Hunter of Per Mar Security Services, who recognized Potter based on the descriptions provided.

Per Mar Security has watched over the skywalk since 2020, when the Skywalk Association hired the firm in response to a couple getting assaulted by a group of teens. The company told KDSM they take the names of anyone who causes issues there.

Hunter called police, provided the names of Ross and Potter, and followed the two until police arrived to take over the situation.

Des Moines Police did not immediately respond to inquiries about the incident on Sunday night.

According to Polk County Jail records, Potter and Ross were booked and charged with felony Child Stealing on Jan. 5.

Potter was on probation and charged with two counts of violating her probation.

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Gunmen kidnap 32 people from southern Nigeria train station

Gunmen armed with AK-47 rifles have abducted more than 30 people from a train station in Nigeria’s southern Edo state, the governor’s office said on Sunday.

The attack is the latest example of the growing insecurity that has spread to nearly every corner of Africa’s most populous country, posing a challenge to the government in advance of a February presidential election.

Police said in a statement that armed herdsmen had attacked Tom Ikimi station at 4 p.m. (1500 GMT) as passengers awaited a train to Warri, an oil hub in nearby Delta state. The station is some 111 km northeast of state capital Benin City and close to the border with Anambra state.

Some people at the station were shot in the attack, police said.

Edo state information commissioner Chris Osa Nehikhare said the kidnappers had taken 32 people, though one had already escaped.

“At the moment, security personnel made up of the military and the police as well as men of the vigilante network and hunters are intensifying search and rescue operations in a reasonable radius to rescue the kidnap victims,” he said. “We are confident that the other victims will be rescued in the coming hours.”

The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) had closed the station until further notice and the federal transportation ministry called the kidnappings “utterly barbaric”.

The NRC last month reopened a rail service linking the capital Abuja with northern Kaduna state, months after gunmen blew up the tracks, kidnapped dozens of passengers and killed six people.

The last hostage taken in that March attack was not freed until October.

Insecurity is rampant across Nigeria, with Islamist insurgencies in the northeast, banditry in the northwest, separatists in the southeast and farmer-herdsmen clashes in the central states.

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Russian woman seen kidnapped by man she refused to marry

Shocking video captured the moment a Russian man kidnapped an 18-year-old woman in a medieval custom known as “bride stealing” – after she refused to marry him.

Three men are seen carting off Bella Ravoyan from an apartment building in the city of Tambov and placing her inside a car that took her to the Nizhny Novgorod region, East2West reported.

Her abductors have been identified by police as her rejected beau, 20-year-old Amik Shamoyan, his father, Oganes, 48, and brother Alo, 24.

“Amik was in love with this girl and they kidnapped her,” an acquaintance reportedly told the local gazeta news outlet.

“Bella’s father filed a complaint with the police, and she was returned back. Amik turned himself in to the police,” the person added.

Bella Ravoyan, 18, is seen being abducted after she refused to marry 20-year-old Amik Shamoyan.
social media /east2west

The spurned man has confessed to the kidnapping, according to East2West.

Amik Shamoyan has reportedly confessed to the shocking “bride stealing.”
social media /east2west
Shamoyan, his father, Oganes, 48, and brother Alo, 24, face up to 12 years behind bars.
social media /east2west

Another video allegedly shows Bella’s furious dad laying waste to a cafe owned by the family of the alleged kidnappers as he brandishes a gun.

Bella’s father was captured on video going on a rampage inside a cafe owned by the kidnappers’ family.
social media /east2west

Oganes and Alo remain at large. All three men face up to 12 years behind bars if convicted.

The abduction has been described by some local media outlets as a medieval “bride stealing” custom still prevalent in parts of the country.

Some reports also suggested that Bella and Amik are related.

The Russian Investigative Committee said the two other suspects have been placed on the federal wanted list.

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Trio of ‘Wolverine Watchman’ convicted in Michigan gov kidnap plot

Three members of a fringe paramilitary group were convicted on Wednesday of aiding a plot to kidnap the Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 over COVID-19 restrictions they viewed as oppressive. 

The plotters – Paul Bellar, Joseph Morrison and Pete Musico – were convicted of trying to help Adam Fox carry out the kidnapping after a state court trial. 

The prosecution in Jackson County, a Republican stronghold west of Detroit, grew out of a sprawling state and federal investigation into the plot. 

Fox and another defendant, Barry Croft, were convicted on federal charges in August – after another jury acquitted two other defendants and deadlocked on charges against the pair. 

In the state prosecution of Bellar, Morrison and Musico, Sunita Doddamani, an assistant attorney general in Michigan, told jurors the trio were an “organized” gang who were planning for action. 

The three far-right plotters were convicted of providing “material support” for a terrorist act as members of the fringe militia group, the Wolverine Watchmen. 

In a statement after the verdict, Whitmer said the convictions “are further proof that violence and threats have no place in our politics.”

“Those who seek to sow discord by pursuing violent plots will be held accountable under the law,” she added. 

With Post Wires

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Eliza Fletcher suspect’s uncle says whole family is ‘wacky’

An uncle of the convicted kidnapper now charged with snatching Eliza Fletcher has said his “whole f—ing family’s wacky” — and he’s convinced his nephew was involved with abducting the Tennessee heiress.

“I’m 100% sure he had something to do with her abduction,” Nathaniel Isaac, 69, told DailyMail of his nephew, Cleotha Abston, who was charged Sunday with violently abducting jogger Fletcher, 34, early Friday.

“Can I prove it? No,” he said.

Cleotha Abston’s uncle said he’s “100% sure” his nephew is involved in Eliza Fletcher’s kidnapping.
AP

Isaac — who married into the family — spoke out before a body was found in the hunt for Fletcher, a Memphis teacher and mom of two. The identity remained unconfirmed Tuesday.

Police have yet to confirm that a body found Monday is the abducted Tennessee heiress.
Instagram/Eliza Fletcher

However, the uncle tried to distance himself from the clan as police searched the Memphis apartment complex looking for family members, including Abston’s mother, who he said was “in hiding.”

“My whole f—ing family’s wacky … They always have been,” Isaac told the Mail.

“They’re not beloved to me because they’re nuts. It’s the truth.

“Go check the police records for the Abstons. You’ll find they’re all perpetrators of something,” he said.

He noted that Abston’s younger brother, Mario Abston, 34, was also arrested at the weekend “for drugs and carrying a gun.”

Police have stressed those charges — including allegations that he was manufacturing and selling fentanyl and heroin — were not tied to Fletcher’s kidnapping.

He said he had little interaction with the accused kidnapper — but knew enough to suspect his involvement in the monstrous crime.

“I believe that he probably did it — but I have no proof,” he told a videographer at the complex.

The damning interview came as Abston was hit with further charges late Monday, court records show.

He was charged with identity theft, theft and fraudulent use of a credit card after a woman reported her wallet being stolen on Thursday, the day before Fletcher’s abduction, ABC 24 noted. He allegedly used the stolen cards at two gas stations for more than $910.

Fletcher, who comes from a pedigreed Tennessee family that founded a $3.2 billion private hardware company, was caught on camera being violently snatched during her regular 4 a.m. run.

The Memphis teacher, who comes from a wealthy family, was last seen jogging just after 4 a.m. Friday.
Tennessee Bureau of Investigatio

Abston was busted after DNA testing on a pair of slides left at the scene, with his phone also linking him to the crime scene.

Surveillance footage showed him running “aggressively toward the victim, and then [forcing] the victim Eliza Fletcher into the passenger’s side of the vehicle,” according to a police affidavit which also said, “there appeared to be a struggle.”

He was later seen cleaning his car and scrubbing his clothes while acting “strange,” the affidavit said.

He remains behind bars on $510,000 bond and is set to be arraigned Tuesday morning.

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NYPD investigate girl who escaped kidnapping by ice cream truck driver in Staten Island

A 10-year-old girl said she was abducted by an ice cream truck driver on Staten Island on Sunday, but was able to break free and call her mother, police said.

The girl told officers that a man grabbed her wrist as she was heading into a deli near Harbor Road and Forest Avenue in Mariners Harbor and allegedly dragged her into an ice cream truck.

She said she was able to break free and flee the vehicle less than a mile away near the corner of Union Avenue and Richmond Terrace. She flagged down a passerby and used their cellphone to contact her mother, according to police.

The girl’s mom then called 911 around 4:40 p.m. to report the alleged abduction, cops said.

Officers canvassed the area and found the ice cream truck near where the child said she was first grabbed by its driver.

Police took the male driver into custody and are investigating the alleged incident.

No charges were filed Sunday night.

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