TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — An Arizona woman escaped her kidnapper by signaling and passing a note to a customer at a Chevron gas station alerting them she had been kidnapped.
On Tuesday around 5 p.m., the woman passed a note with her name on it, asking the customer to call 911.
The note reads, “Help…call 911 Blue Honda van…going towards Kingsman.”
It also included a description of the van the woman was in, her phone number, and that they were heading to Kingman and Las Vegas, according to the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office.
The customer then called 911, telling authorities the van had just left, traveling westbound on a nearby interstate, including the descriptions of the victim’s and man’s clothing.
The Department of Public Safety successfully located the van and the suspect, 41-year-old Jacob Wilhoit, was detained.
Multiple firearms were also found in the suspect’s car.
Deputies learned that the victim’s mother reported her missing earlier that afternoon and that Wilhoit was a person of interest.
Detectives discovered Wilhoit abducted the woman from a car dealership in the Phoenix area around 7 a.m. on Monday. He was wearing a wig and pretending to be an Uber driver.
Wilhoit was arrested and charged with unlawful imprisonment, kidnapping, harassment, threatening and intimidating. aggravated assault, and other assault charges.
