After a woman was kidnapped in Marlborough in September, a just-released state police arrest warrant pieces together the horrifying moments in the Big Y parking lot.
“There was no rhyme or reason for it and it was scary. It was really scary,” said Lori Atkins of Colchester.
State police said it took surveillance video, including from the store, DNA testing and a trip to Florida to catch the people responsible for the kidnapping there.
A 64-year-old woman later told detectives two young men approached her, grabbed her and demanded money.
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In the warrant, it says the woman fought back and asked, “Why are you doing this to me?” and one responded, “Because you’re white and my mother is very ill.”
Detectives said the suspects threw a bag over the woman’s head, forced her into the backseat of her car at gunpoint and hit her in the face and head with a gun several times.
One repeatedly said “he was going to kill her.”
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“This was something that was a very heinous crime and really shook the community,” Sgt. Dawn Pagan of Connecticut State Police said at the time of the suspects' arrests.
State police said the suspects forced the woman to withdraw money from multiple ATMs and they used her card at a store in East Hartford to buy two Powerade's.
Her car was lit on fire in Berlin after she had been pulled out and left on the road with a broken leg, cuts to her face and other injuries.
Eventually, investigators said they were able to track down the suspects in Deerfield Beach, Florida a few weeks later.
As they were held on unrelated charges, it took another five months before police announced the arrests in the kidnapping, a 16-year-old youth and 20-year-old Kenneth Gordon.
Police combed through Gordon’s cellphone. That included reportedly-deleted web history with news stories about the abduction and a Google search for “kidnapping sentencing guidelines.”
“I’m glad they caught someone and hope that justice is served,” said Atkins.
Police also linked Gordon to car thefts in the region. He’s being held on a $1 million bond in this case.
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