A North Carolina girl was allegedly abducted by her friend’s uncle and forced into the woods — before she was found in a ditch and chillingly told a good Samaritan that she had been kidnapped.
The girl, 12, was staying at her neighbor’s home in Lillington – a town 40 miles southwest of Raleigh – for a sleepover on Sunday when she was woken up by 38-year-old Daniel Gear, who is accused of terrorizing her, WNCN reported.
Gear allegedly forced the girl, who hasn’t been identified, into his truck and they drove toward some woodland, where “he made her get out” of the vehicle, according to the outlet.
The girl managed to escape her alleged abductor when Gear parked his truck behind an Erwin Department of Motor Vehicles office — which is roughly 11 miles away from Lillington — on Sunday afternoon, police said.
The DMV lists its office as being closed on Saturday and Sunday.
Motorist Jennifer Maxwell spotted the girl fleeing the wooded area while she was driving on a stretch of US Highway 421, which runs through the town and in front of the DMV.
The girl, who was shoeless and covered in scratches, “came running out of the woods and down the embankment,” Maxwell, a mom of three, told WRAL.
“She kind of just dropped in the ditch and was just crying hysterically,” Maxwell said. “I rolled down my window, and I was like, ‘Baby, are you okay?’ And she was like, ‘No, I’ve been kidnapped.’
“And I was like, ‘Are you serious?’ She was like, ‘Yes I’m serious. I was kidnapped.”
The girl said Gear had been “pushing her, grabbing her shoulder and making her walk,” according to Maxwell.
“She said they had been walking for a couple of hours,” Maxwell said.
“She was very scratched up, like her legs had lines all over them. Either she went through briars or thick brush.”
Maxwell and the girl went to a local police station to report the alleged kidnapping, but she doesn’t consider herself to be a Good Samaritan.
“I just thank God that I could be where I was,” she said. “And God knows if that girl didn’t get away, what would have happened.”
She also revealed that she was caught up in a car accident on the same day she picked up the girl.
Gear was arrested at around 8:15 p.m. Sunday after a seven-hour manhunt, involving drones and K9s. Cops had warned he was armed and dangerous.
He was charged with first-degree kidnapping and assault, and appeared in court for the first time on Monday.
His next scheduled court date is Sept. 1 and a judge has set his bond at $2.5 million.
Neighbors horrified by what had unfolded admitted they didn’t really know much about Gear.
“He never really came out of the house. He worked from home,” Justin Powers told WNCN.
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