Boulder County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a 42-year-old transient this afternoon on suspicion he abducted two local hikers at gunpoint near Nederland last weekend.
Joseph Scott Carter had been camping in the forest for a couple of weeks, the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
He was found near the Peak to Peak Highway this afternoon and matched the description given by the man and woman he allegedly accosted at rifle point. He then bound them to trees.
The 44-year-old Berthoud man escaped, then the 32-year-old woman from Fort Collins was set free Saturday afternoon on a trail in the 38000 block of the Peak to Peak Highway.
Ten other people saw a man with a rifle matching the description given by couple, the Sheriff’s Department said this afternoon.
Authorities did not release whether a rifle was found.
Carter is being held in the Boulder County Jail.
Saturday and Sunday SWAT officers and other law enforcement personnel combed the forest, but found nothing. Some campers were evacuated and residents were alerted to avoid the area.
He has had only minor run-ins with local authorities before. Public records show Carter was arrested in Longmont in March and pleaded guilty to a petty offense, making unreasonable noise.
He pleaded guilty to having fictitious license plates in Boulder County in 1992.
