Kidnapping

The suspect in the slaying of an 11-year-old Salisbury girl found dead Christmas Day was indicted Monday on charges of kidnapping, child abduction and burglary, according to online court records. Thomas J. Leggs Jr. will face additional charges, authorities have said. A medical examiner has determined that Sarah Haley Foxwell's death was a homicide. Her body was found Christmas Day. Leggs, 30, has convictions for sex offenses in Maryland and Delaware. - Associated Press

Having read your report, the story of the kidnapping and imprisonment of three women in Cleveland makes no sense whatever ("Women's 'nightmare is over,'" May 8). If true, something is drastically wrong with America. I am incredulous the women were held against their will for 10 years, incredulous that neighbors blame the police when the captives were right next door, incredulous one of the prisoners could have given birth and cared for a child for six years without anyone asking questions.

The release of the last known living Western hostages held in Lebanon ends a crisis in relations between the West and Lebanon, Syria and Iran that has been going on since 1984. Their kidnapping was state-sponsored terrorism.Germany made some concessions in the treatment of two convicted terrorists in German prisons to buy their freedom, but so long as the concessions are reasonable, that price is not too high.Of 92 Western hostages seized while going about their daily business in Lebanon from 1984 to 1991, eight are known dead and three presumed dead.

Detectives in Aberdeen received a tip they hoped would be their big break: A prisoner seeking leniency said he knew the man who abducted the mother of Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr. But nearly nine months after the bizarre kidnapping, no suspect has been identified and police still don't know of a motive in the case, in which Violet R. Ripken was taken from her home by an unknown assailant and safely returned nearly 24 hours later. Michael Wayne Molitor claimed last year to know what happened and gave police a name; in return, police helped persuade a judge to grant him bail after a string of drug offenses.

A 21-year old North Laurel man is in the Howard County Detention Center, held on $350,000 bail and facing charges that he robbed two different people at knifepoint in the same shopping center on the same day, including one incident that involved a kidnapping and carjacking. Nortel Maurice Clayton, who lived with his family in the 9500 block Canterbury Riding, also in North Laurel, was arrested Wednesday night while seeking treatment for a minor injury at the Prince George's County Hospital Center, according to county police.

Detectives in Aberdeen received a tip they hoped would be their big break: A prisoner seeking leniency said he knew the man who abducted the mother of Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr. But nearly nine months after the bizarre kidnapping, no suspect has been identified and police still don't know of a motive in the case, in which Violet R. Ripken was taken from her home by an unknown assailant and safely returned nearly 24 hours later. Michael Wayne Molitor claimed last year to know what happened and gave police a name; in return, police helped persuade a judge to grant him bail after a string of drug offenses.

A teenage girl was kidnapped by four men in Woodlawn, driven to an unfamiliar location and sexually assaulted on Nov. 1, police said. At about 3 p.m. that day, the 15-year-old was walking in the 1800 block of Woodlawn Drive when men in a teal, four-door sedan approached, according to a statement Wednesday from the Baltimore County Police Department. Two of the men were wearing ski masks, police said. One of the unmasked men began talking to the victim, displayed a handgun and then forced her into the car, according to police.

Two men were given life sentences Tuesday for their roles in the May 2010 kidnapping and rape of a woman who was stranded in downtown Baltimore and seeking help, prosecutors said. Jerome Lee, 29, and Jamal Richards, 28, were convicted by Baltimore juries in November. On May 22, 2010, the men were driving when they saw a woman on North Eutaw Street seeking assistance and they offered to drive her home, according to a statement from the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office.

Authorities are seeking at least two other potential victims of the man charged with kidnapping an 11-year-old Salisbury girl whose body was found on Christmas Day, the Wicomico County state's attorney said. "I have reason to believe there are other victims out there who have not come forward before," said State's Attorney Davis Ruark, adding that authorities have received information about potential adult victims. Thomas J. Leggs Jr, 30, is being held without bond in the disappearance of Sarah Haley Foxwell, his former girlfriend's niece, who was seen leaving her bedroom with him last week, according to court documents.

The three Baltimore police officers accused of dumping a West Baltimore teen in a Howard County park last year with no shoes or a cell phone turned themselves in Wednesday and were being held as of late afternoon on six-figure bails. Tyrone Francis, 29, Gregory Hellen, 30, and Milton G. Smith III, 32, were indicted by a city grand jury on charges of kidnapping, false imprisonment, second-degree assault and misconduct in office Tuesday. On May 4, 2009, a teen said the officers pulled him into a police van and drove him into Patapsco State Park in Ellicott City, snapping his cell phone and leaving him there without shoes.

The State Department is probably very pleased with the outcome of last week's hostage crisis in Algeria, although given the loss of innocent lives it would be impolitic for officials to say so. In case you missed it, Islamic militants had held an unspecified number of people hostage at a gas field in eastern Algeria, including a small number of Americans. Dozens of militants and hostages - including three Americans, according to the U.S. - were killed during a series of attacks by the Algerian military.

A 19-year-old Baltimore man, who three years ago accused three city police officers of abducting him and leaving him in a Howard County park, was cleared of an attempted murder charge Wednesday and given a suspended sentence on drug charges.  In May 2009, when he was 15 years old, Michael B. Johnson  Jr. was picked up by the officers and left in the rain without shoes or a cell phone at Patapsco Valley State Park. The officers were charged a year later with kidnapping and related charges.

The father of a Baltimore elementary school student is facing kidnapping and other charges after police said he locked his son's 11-year-old classmate in his car, and drove around cursing at him after learning the two boys had been in an altercation that day. Donald Shields Sr., 33, was charged with kidnapping, second-degree assault and false imprisonment in the Nov. 5 incident, which occurred at Yorkwood Elementary School, according to charging documents...

The suspect in the abduction of Violet R. Ripken from her Aberdeen home stopped at a Middle River Walmart the day after the July incident and may have had a brief encounter with the driver of a dark green minivan, Aberdeen Police Lt. Fred Budnick said Monday. Police are asking the driver of the van, which appears to be a Dodge Caravan with stickers on the driver and passenger side back windows, to contact them with any information. Budnick said the driver is not a suspect but perhaps a witness.

A member of an alleged international marijuana smuggling organization shipping drugs to Maryland has pleaded guilty to kidnapping a man who was later murdered in the bathroom of a White Marsh apartment. Jamaican national Dean Myrie, 39, faces life imprisonment for his role in the crime and for being a member of the organization. Myrie and other members of the ring kidnapped Michael Knight, a courier, in December, 2009, federal prosecutors said. They thought he had stolen $250,000 in money he had been holding for Brown, according to filings in the case, bound him up with a telephone cord and interrogated him. When Knight said he did not know where the money went, prosecutors say a woman named Jean Brown - who allegedly led the organization - paid two other men $100,000 to kill him. She denies the allegations.

Maryland State Police are looking for three men who kidnapped a man in Cockeysville, crashed his 2011 Nissan Frontier on Interstate 83 at the Padonia Road exit and fled the scene. The victim was found unharmed on Thursday around midnight after one of the suspect's crashed the truck on the southbound ramp for Padonia Road in Timonium, police said. The three suspects allegedly approached the victim outside an establishment in the 10000 block of York Road when the men forced their way into the victim's truck and directed him to drive north.

A 21-year-old man charged with kidnapping a woman at gunpoint and impersonating a state police officer was released on $25,000 bond yesterday in Kent County.State police at Centreville alleged that the suspect, driving south on U.S. 301 in Kent County, tricked the driver of a car ahead of him to pull over near Chesterville Millington Road by flashing his headlights and blowing his horn about 2:30 a.m. Saturday.The suspect approached the car threatening Rebecca Guiswite, 29, of Townsend, Del., and the driver, Darnell Henry, 31, of Sassafras, with what turned out to be a pellet gun resembling a police-issue 9mm pistol.

A Crofton man faces up to 30 years in prison after admitting yesterday that he kidnapped a county police officer while being driven to jail in August 1990.Harold Dean Rogers Jr., 29, of the 1900 block of Cambridge Drive, pleaded guilty in county Circuit Court to kidnapping, robbery and battery in connection with the Aug. 28, 1990, abduction of Officer Janice J. Schwartz.In return for the guilty pleas, any sentences Rogers receives will run concurrently, said Assistant State's Attorney Ronald M. Naditch.

A 29-year-old Reisterstown man kidnapped his roommate and coworker Wednesday after accusing the second man of paying $2,000 too much for a load of scrap metal, Baltimore County police said. Justin Earl Gorham allegedly kidnapped the victim, 23, and drove him to an Exxon gas station in the 11900 block of Reisterstown Road around 9:30 p.m., where police were waiting, said, Cpl. Cathy Batton, a police spokeswoman. Gorham, of the 11800 block of Maren Court, is charged with kidnapping, first-degree assault and the use of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime.

Baltimore County police were investigating a kidnapping in Reisterstown late Wednesday night after tracking a suspect down Interstate-795 and locating the victim in his truck. Just after 9:30 p.m., police received a report of a kidnapping near the intersection of Reisterstown Road and Franklin Avenue, said Cpl. Cathy Batton, a police spokeswoman. When police responded, they were advised by a man at the scene that one of his acquaintances had kidnapped one of his male relatives and was demanding money, Batton said.