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Truck Driver Helps Avert Alleged Kidnapping in S.C.
Anthony Moore Says Woman Ran Onto Road as Man Who Claimed to Be Police Pursued Her
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Key Takeaways:
- A woman in handcuffs fled an alleged kidnapper on a South Carolina road May 29 and truck driver Anthony Moore stopped to help.
- Moore said the suspect claimed to be a police officer and investigators found a cut fence chain near where the woman escaped.
- Investigators reviewed evidence from the scene and the woman’s account after Jonathan Willard was arrested and charged with kidnapping and impersonating an officer.
A woman in handcuffs ran onto a South Carolina road on May 29, fleeing a man she said had tried to kidnap her. A truck driver stopped to help.
Anthony Moore was driving that morning when he saw her run into the road. She reached his truck and asked for help as a man pursued her. Investigators later identified the man as Jonathan Willard.
“She would run on one side of the road, try to run over there, run to the other side of the road, try to run over there,” Moore told WRDW, a CBS affiliate in Georgia. “She said, ‘Help me, help me, help me, he’s trying to kidnap me.’ ”
Moore said the man reached his truck and claimed to be a police officer. The woman told him he was not and that he had tried to kidnap her. Moore recalled that another driver stopped to help and call police. The man left. The other driver called authorities and freed the woman from the handcuffs.
(WRDW News 12 via YouTube)
The woman told authorities the man had taken her phone and diploma from her graduation the previous day. She wanted to stay with her father after graduating. But when she started walking to her mother’s house the next morning, Willard allegedly stopped her.
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Moore
She said he ran up to her and said, ‘I’m with the cops,’ handcuffed her and threw her in the backseat,” Moore said. “The lieutenant came over and said, ‘There’s no doubt in our mind you saved her life, because when we looked back at the fence back there, he cut the chain on the fence.’ ”
Moore said the lieutenant also told him investigators found evidence at the scene. Willard allegedly left his door open while fumbling with something in his vehicle, giving the woman a chance to escape. Moore, who also serves as a pastor, believes he was meant to be there.
Willard was arrested and charged with impersonating a law enforcement officer and kidnapping.
