Free Republic

A woman who authorities say was kidnapped after meeting a man in New Mexico last year and eventually brought to New Jersey reportedly managed to escape her alleged captor by making a mad dash for a nearby gas station. James W. Parrillo Jr., 57, was arrested on Feb. 7, after the woman, whose name has not been released by authorities, allegedly escaped from the Bass River Township residence they shared and fled to a nearby gas station, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office said in a statement on Friday. Parrillo is charged with first-degree kidnapping, second-degree strangulation and aggravated assault,...

A Texas man released on a $2 bail for allegedly choking and kidnapping his former girlfriend was rearrested within days for continuing to threaten her... Aubrey Taylor was arrested after allegedly holding his former girlfriend hostage, choking and terrorizing her on Dec. 27 in Harris County, Texas. He was offered a $2 bond — $1 for each count — during his court date on Jan. 13 and was rearrested on Jan. 18 for violating court orders and allegedly threatening the victim.. “Repeat offender accused of beating woman gets $1 bond. Horrific,” said Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbot on Twitter. “Texans...

About 200 people in Paradise, Texas, searched for Athena Strand for three days. The authorities said she was taken near her home on Wednesday and found dead on Friday. A search for a missing 7-year-old Texas girl ended with the discovery three days later of her body and a FedEx contract driver being charged in her kidnapping and killing, the authorities said on Friday. The search for the girl, Athena Strand, began on Wednesday in Paradise, Texas, about 40 miles northwest of Fort Worth. Nearly 200 volunteers and numerous law enforcement agencies, using dogs and a helicopter with thermal imagining,...

The Iranian regime’s commander of the Revolutionary Guards in the province of Isfahan said on Sunday that the theocratic state seeks to kidnap Benjamin Netanyahu and bring him to the Islamic Republic as a slave. Iranian-regime-controlled Bahar News reported that Mojtaba Fada, the commander of Isfahan’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said that “the prime minister of the Zionist regime hoped that the protests in Iran would lead him to travel to Tehran [in a post-protest, Mullah-free Iran], but God willing, the Islamic Republic will prevail [and quash the protests, once again taking charge of the country] and will frog...

Thursday on “CNN This Morning,” co-host Kaitlan Collins asked Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), “what is the argument for you not running for president?” Collins said, “On another note, you’ve been asked a lot in almost basically every interview you’ve done recently about a 2024 run and running for president. You said you’re not interested in it. I guess my question is if you’re a supporter of yours, and you’re someone who doesn’t live in Michigan but is national and wants to see you run, what is the argument for you not running for president?

The young woman who called the police reported that a man she did not know tried to force her into his car but she managed to escape. In a short time the man was located and arrested by a team of police officers. He was taken in for questioning. The police say that the main suspicion is that this is an attempted kidnapping based on nationalistic background. The investigation of the incident was handed over to the General Security Service.

The body of a 12-year-old girl has been found inside a suitcase in Paris, according to reports. Her father became concerned after she failed to arrive home from school on Friday, BFMTV reported. The girl's mother reported her missing to the local police station in the French capital's northeastern 19th arrondissement later that day. Detectives quickly launched an investigation after signs of a kidnapping were discovered in the basement of the family home. CCTV footage then showed a woman outside the building carrying a suitcase, which was later found a few streets away in rue d'Hautpoul with the girl's corpse...

Olga Lopatkina paced around her basement in circles like a trapped animal. For more than a week, the Ukrainian mother had heard nothing from her six adopted children stranded in Mariupol, and she was going out of her mind with worry. (snip) The questions looped endlessly in her head: Should she try to rescue the children herself — and risk being killed, making them orphans yet again? Or should she campaign to get them out from afar — and risk them being killed or falling into the hands of the Russians? She had no idea her dilemma would lead her...

AN FRANCISCO (AP) — A baby girl, her parents and uncle were found dead in a central California orchard two days after they were kidnapped at gunpoint from their business, police said.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) is planning to send border crossers and illegal aliens, arriving on migrant buses from Texas, to a relatively secluded island off the Bronx neighborhood.

Astonishing, and at times infuriating, video of Sherri Papini’s interrogation by California detectives was released Tuesday, showing the moment she learned her kidnapping hoax had been found out. Papini and her husband, Keith Papini, met with Shasta County Sheriff’s Office investigators on Aug. 13, 2020. Before her story unraveled, detectives asked if she wanted her husband to leave the room. “The DNA alone says it's him, and when we talked to him, confronted him with the DNA, he told us what happened,” the detective says. “He 100% told us what happened. He gave us details that nobody else would know.”...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) demanded that the Department of Justice investigate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for “kidnapping” for flying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard — but Newsom bused homeless people from San Francisco elsewhere. As National Public Radio reported in 2006, then-San Francisco Mayor Newsom launched the “Homeward Bound” program in an unsuccessful effort to rid the city of homeless people who were attracted by generous welfare and relatively warm weather.

MIAMI – A Texas sheriff has opened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to fly a group of migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard, his agency tweeted Monday evening. Javier Salazar, the sheriff of Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, held a news conference on the migrant flight Monday. Salazar is a Democrat, while DeSantis is a Republican. “The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office has opened an investigation into the migrants that were lured from the Migrant Resource Center, located in Bexar County, TX, and flown to Florida, where they were ultimately left to fend...

Pieper Lewis, an Iowa teenager, has already lived through the nightmare of experiencing multiple sexual assaults when she was captured as a human trafficking victim two years ago by nasty, evil men when she was only 15. That nightmare swiftly ended when she fought back, stabbing her attacker numerous times after yet another sexual assault. Most decent people would cheer on her extreme bravery, but that wasn’t the case in the Iowa court system, as a judge punished her with serious charges for ultimately saving her own life. Adding insult to injury, the judge ordered her to pay $150,000 to...

Cleotha Abston-Henderson, 38, has been charged with first-degree murder in relation to mother-of-two Eliza Fletcher He is accused of kidnapping her as she was out jogging at 4.30am on Friday and 'violently' bundled her into his SUV Authorities announced on Tuesday that Fletcher's body had been found by an abandoned house after an exhaustive search Abston-Henderson was previously jailed for 22 years after kidnapping a lawyer in Memphis in 2000, driving him around at gunpoint Records show that he was previously arrested for raping a man and several assaults before he turned 16, and was first in juvenille court aged...

A former FBI investigator said Eliza Fletcher's kidnapping suspect had previously abducted a former co-worker of the heiress's uncle. Jennifer Coffindaffer revealed that Cleotha Abston's first kidnapping victim, Memphis Attorney Kemper Durand, worked in the same flaw firm as Fletcher's uncle, Michael Keeney, NewsNation reports. 'I think this is a very significant clue, and I'm sure certainly that the FBI, the US Marshalls and the TBI is looking closely at this relationship,' Coffindaffer said. Abston, 38, was only 16-years-old when he and an accomplice kidnapped Durand, threw him into his own trunk, and tried to force him to withdraw money...

The body found near the Memphis crime scene late Sunday has been identified as missing teacher and young mother Eliza Fletcher, the Memphis Police Department confirmed. Fletcher was abducted while she was running near the University of Memphis early Friday morning. Agents with the U.S. Marshals Service arrested Cleotha Abston, 38, on Saturday after matching his DNA to a pair of sandals found near the scene. Abston was charged Tuesday morning with first-degree murder, in addition to his previous charges, records show.

The Memphis Police Department has arrested a man in connection with the kidnapping of missing teacher Eliza Fletcher. Cleotha Abston, 38, was arrested and charged with especially aggravated kidnapping and tampering with evidence following Fletcher’s mysterious disappearance on Friday, Memphis police said early Sunday. "The investigation into the abduction of Eliza Fletcher is still active and ongoing. Investigators are continuing the search and following all leads," the police department said.

Police were called to the 1800 block of Bandera Road just before 11 p.m. on Tuesday for a reported kidnapping. A family member told police they had received a call that their 17-year-old relative had been taken. The caller demanded money and said the victim would be harmed if the relative didn’t comply.

A missing 3-year-old girl was found in a north Houston motel room with a stranger, and now authorities are trying to figure out what happened to her during the 10 hours she was missing. The stranger accused of taking the girl from her parents' apartment has now been charged. Holman Hernandez, 50, is charged with aggravated kidnapping. It was only thanks to a witness that investigators had any idea who they were looking for. ABC13 was there as police surrounded a motel and arrested the suspect on Sunday. Police said Hernandez -- the suspect at the center of the Amber...