A 75-year-old woman was severely beaten, tied up, abducted from her home and left in her own car for two days, said sheriff’s investigators.
One of the kidnappers cleaned the victim’s carpets at her home on Resmar Place in unincorporated La Mesa last week, according to investigators. That man allegedly returned to the home on Monday, crying and saying he had broken up with his girlfriend. Police said the victim, who lives alone, let the man into her house, where he attacked her, punching and choking her until she was unconscious. He then bound her with duct tape and put her in the trunk of her Dodge Magnum wagon.
When the victim woke up, there was another man and a woman in the vehicle. The victim chewed through the duct tape and screamed for help while they were at a gas station, to no avail. The kidnappers then parked the car the night, leaving the woman inside. The next day, the kidnappers returned, then drove around the County with the woman in the trunk.
Deputies said they tried to pull over the wagon for a traffic violation in El Cajon shortly after midnight Wednesday, but the driver refused to yield and eventually managed to elude officers. Shortly afterward, the deputy spotted the vehicle with the crooks inside, who fled on foot. One man was taken into custody immediately, and the woman and other man were arrested after a manhunt in the area.
Deputies found the elderly woman tied up in the back of the car.
“This is highly unusual ... especially for the amount of time that we’re looking at here -- with several days in one vehicle, that’s a bit unusual, and for someone who’s 75,” Sgt. Mark Varnau said.
A shovel was found in the back of the car, but investigators say they’re not jumping to any conclusions.
“You could infer that that’s there for some particular reason other than gardening, but it may simply belong to the victim,” Varnau said.
The victim was hospitalized. Varnau called her a fighter.
