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Teen May Have Abducted Woman, North Port Police Say

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Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: March 17, 2009

A reported abduction in North Port on Monday night touched off a multi-agency search that briefly shut down Interstate 75 as authorities scrambled to find a 44-year-old woman, who was eventually located in a local restaurant with her alleged abductor, a 17-year-old boy.

The boy was turned over to the Department of Juvenile Justice Monday night on an unrelated warrant for false imprisonment and tampering with a witness but remains the subject of a North Port Police investigation into what he was doing with the woman, whose name has not been released.

Police got a 911 call from the woman's boyfriend at 7:08 p.m. saying that she had been kidnapped. By 8 p.m., authorities found the boyfriend's car abandoned on I-75 near mile marker 188. Searchers shut down the southbound lanes and called in canine units to aid in the search.

Sarasota County Sheriff's Office units, including a helicopter, and the Florida Highway Patrol continued the search until 10:45 p.m. when the woman and the boy were found in Beef O'Brady's restaurant on Sumter Boulevard. Both were taken back to the city police headquarters for questioning.

The woman knew the boy, and police are still looking into whether he kidnapped her.

"It's just one of those cases that kind of make you go, 'Huh?'" Capt. Robert Estrada said today.

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