Chambersburg police seek man in kidnapping

August 01, 2007|By DON AINES

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Chambersburg police were looking for a man they say held a woman and her three children hostage last week for $500 in ransom.

Trevor D. Brown, 23, whose last known address was 802 Broad St., has been charged with four counts each of kidnapping, false imprisonment, criminal coercion, simple assault and terroristic threats and one count of theft by extortion, police said. The charges were filed with Magisterial District Judge Gary Carter's office.

On Monday, July 23, at 9:36 p.m., a man told police his wife and children had been kidnapped and he had just paid a $500 ransom to have them freed, according to the affidavit of probable cause. The man said he was called at 6 p.m. by a man who said "I want my money," and threatened to kill the woman and the children if it was not paid in half an hour.

The caller instructed the man to put the money under the driver's seat of an unlocked Ford Explorer parked near a laundromat in the 800 block of Broad Street, police said. He also threatened to kill the man and warned him not to contact police, according to the affidavit.

After delivering the money, the man got a call that the children were "coming out" and he was to pick them up at the laundromat, but that he still intended to kill the man's wife. The man told the caller "that he didn't care as long as his children were OK," the affidavit stated.

The man picked up his children and took them to the police department, police said. The children told police that they had been held in an upstairs apartment by a heavyset black male armed with a handgun.

They told police the man struck the mother in the head several times and grabbed her by the neck. The woman later spoke with her estranged husband by telephone from her sister's apartment, police said.

On Wednesday, July 25, the children picked Brown's driver's license photo from among nine photos, police said. The mother "reluctantly identified" Brown from the photo lineup as well, telling police she borrowed $200 from him on July 16.

She and the children were visiting Brown's apartment on July 23 when Brown made sexual advances toward her, police said. When she refused, Brown became angry and demanded she repay the money, police said. At one point, he put the silver handgun to her head and threatened to shoot her, police said.

Brown sent the woman to retrieve the money from the Ford Explorer and released the children when she returned, police said. After the children were released, the woman told police Brown put a knife to her throat and threatened to kill the family if she talked to police.

Brown then allowed her to leave the apartment, police said.

Brown is 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighs 250 pounds, police said. He could be armed with the revolver and is believed to be driving a black Cadillac with a Pennsylvania license plate.

Anyone knowing the whereabouts of Brown may call the department at 717-264-1633.

|

|

|