Abduction suspect arrested in Cleveland

Kurt Jakub

Cleveland police arrested a man yesterday suspected of kidnapping a woman and her toddler daughter in the Greater Pittsburgh area Saturday morning, said Chief David Blough of the Brimfield Police Department.

The man’s identity has not been released yet. He is being held by the Cleveland Police Department and will probably be turned over to the Pittsburgh Police Department, Blough said.

Blough said the Brimfield Police Department was a part of the investigation because the suspect made the woman rent a room in the America’s Best Value Inn in Brimfield, where he then raped her three times.

Blough said the suspect got into the back seat of her car in a Pittsburgh Giant Eagle parking lot, threatened her daughter with a knife and told her to drive.

He said the woman was forced to get off at the state Route 43 exit on Interstate 76 in Brimfield.

One of the woman’s bank cards was used to pay for the room at America’s Best Value Inn. The suspect drove the woman and her child to Cuyahoga Falls and made cash withdrawals at an ATM, Blough said. The suspect then drove with the two to Cleveland and ordered them out of the car, Blough said.

The woman sought treatment at Huron Road Hospital, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Her daughter was unharmed.

Cleveland Police received a tip Sunday afternoon from a citizen who had spotted the victim’s stolen blue 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee, Blough said.

Blough said he anticipates the Brimfield police department will turn all of its information over to the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Police Departments.

Contact public affairs reporter Kurt Jakub at [email protected].