Share
Hickory police have released a sketch of the man who allegedly kidnapped an employee at Lenoir-Rhyne University early Wednesday and forced her to drive him 35 miles at gunpoint.
The employee, an 18-year-old woman from Conover, was not physically harmed.
According to police, the woman was kidnapped when she got into her car about 12:30 a.m. on the campus in Hickory, after finishing work at a university restaurant. She said the man apparently was hiding in her car. At gunpoint, she said, the man forced her to drive to Cherryville.
The victim told police the man told her to drive to a certain spot, where they met a parked red pickup truck. The gunman then got out of the victim's car, got into the truck, and drove off with another man.
The victim told WCNC-TV, the Observer's news partner, that she was extremely frightened during the ordeal. The abductor allowed the woman to use her cell phone to call her brother in Virginia. Her brother then contacted the woman's father, who called police.
“I thought, I'm just going to do what he says,” the woman told WCNC. “What can you do when you are 18 and you have a guy with a gun that's pointing at your head, and he says if you don't do what he says, you're going to die?”
Lenoir-Rhyne University officials and Hickory police have stepped up security on the university campus.
Anyone with information in the case is asked to call Hickory police, 828-328-5551.
WCNC-TV contributed.
