LINCOLN COUNTY, Mo. – The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office reported stopping a kidnapping with the help of a feature on a cellphone, the emergency SOS function, which connects directly to 911.
You have probably seen the screen by accident, and maybe you panicked to make sure you did not trigger it. Yet it appears to have saved a St. Louis County woman who was reportedly abducted from a Maryland Heights parking lot and found in a remote part of Troy, Missouri.
It happened on July 18 on the outskirts of Westport Plaza. A woman reported that her angry boyfriend forced her into his car. She said he had been following her throughout St. Louis County, trying to get her to stop her vehicle. He finally caught up with her off Lackland Road and blocked her in.
A Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office detective’s five-page probable cause statement describes a terrifying ride along Interstates 270 and 70 on the way to Lincoln County.
The victim reported that her abductor drove up to 100 mph as she noticed highway signs saying, “Kansas City West.”
She reported that the suspect said, “The only way she was getting out was to jump out and kill herself,” and that he “had a cup of urine in the car… and poured it on her.”
They eventually arrived on a remote part of Old Cap au Gris Road in Troy, Missouri, where the suspect reportedly pointed out a dead-end road sign and said no one would find her.
The police statement said the suspect “dragged her out of the car” and “stomped on her, telling her he was going to kill (her),” while the victim somehow triggered her emergency SOS function on her cell phone.
It prompted a 911 call that Lincoln County Sheriff’s deputies and the Troy Police Department traced to find the victim with “bite marks” and other “marks to her body,” along with the suspect.
The suspect is Oscar Marcus Ward, 36, of North Carolina. He is now in custody and faced a judge on Nov. 10 in a preliminary hearing. Ward is charged with kidnapping and tampering with a witness for allegedly trying to get his associates to contact the victim.
FOX 2 will stay on top of this ongoing investigation. Ward faces arraignment on Nov. 18.