A 15-year-old girl escaped from a car after she was kidnapped and driven around the metro area for up to four hours on Wednesday, authorities say.
Douglas County Sheriff’s investigators were searching for two suspects who grabbed the girl and forced her into a car late Wednesday morning near the King Soopers at 2205 W. Wildcat Reserve Parkway, said Lt. Alan Stanton, spokesman for the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department.
The suspects are described as a bald, heavyset man wearing a white shirt, and a man with black hair who wore a baseball cap with mesh backing and black jeans, Stanton said.
The girl was sick and stayed home Wednesday from a Highlands Ranch school, Stanton said. She was walking to the grocery store between 10 a.m. and noon to get medication when she saw a white or gray older model car with purple-tinted windows drive by.
A short time later, someone grabbed her from behind without her hearing anyone approaching, Stanton said.
“She was surprised,” he said. “She did not see the suspect’s face.”
The man with black hair and jeans forced her into the back of the four-door car, he said.
He shoved her to the floorboard of the back seat and warned her to be silent, Stanton said.
The kidnapping suspect held the girl down while his bald accomplice drove for more than two hours, he said.
The suspects spoke to each other in English and Spanish while they drove for a long distance – apparently on a highway because the car did not stop, Stanton said.
The girl managed to jump out of the back door when the car finally came to a stop sign, Stanton said. The car then sped off, he said.
The girl was not physically injured or sexually assaulted, Stanton said.
Authorities do not know the motive for the kidnapping. The victim did not recognize the suspects, Stanton said.
The victim escaped in the Meridian Business Center, which is about 12 miles from where she was kidnapped. She walked to a business and called her parents.
It was about 2 p.m. when they came to get her.
The family called the sheriff’s department at 3:38 p.m., Stanton said.
“She was shaken,” Stanton said.
Sheriff’s deputies scoured the Meridian area for the suspects, he said.
Officials are asking that businesses near the King Soopers store and in the Meridian business area search surveillance camera video for images of the suspects’ car.
It has distinctive features, Stanton said.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-820-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
Abduction suspects
Suspect 1: Hispanic, heavyset, bald, wearing a white shirt.
Suspect 2: Hispanic, black hair, black jeans, baseball cap with mesh backing.
Car: Older model, four-door, gray or white, dented, rusted, with purple-tinted windows.
Douglas County Sheriff’s tip line: 303-660-7579
