HOT SPRINGS -- A Tennessee man and teenage girl have been charged with kidnapping a 17-year-old Hot Springs girl late Monday from the downtown area, an act Hot Springs Police Chief Chris Chapmond called a "very heinous crime" Wednesday.
Samuel Wayne Bolling Jr., 38, of Nashville, Tenn., and Dayla Diane Ferrer, 19, of Memphis were taken into custody around 6 p.m. Tuesday. Each has been charged with kidnapping and aggravated robbery, each punishable by up to life in prison; first-degree battery, punishable by up to 20 years; and first-degree false imprisonment, punishable by up to 10 years.
Both remained in custody Wednesday, each in lieu of a $1 million bond, with the cases bound over directly to Garland County Circuit Court.
Chapmond spoke about the incident Wednesday during his monthly report to the Civil Service Commission.
"Everyone is aware we had a kidnapping [Monday]," Chapmond said. "I'd like to commend my staff and our partnering agencies that worked with us to solve that. Within 20 hours, we were able to relocate the victim, secure her safely, return her back to her parents and then make the arrest of the two individuals."
"I'm not allowed to release the details of that, but it was a very heinous crime," he said.
Chapmond said more than 20 people were working on the case at any given time, and at one point the effort involved close to 50. He also noted the department received "great cooperation" from Arkansas State Police as well as assistance from the FBI.
Bolling and Ferrer were arrested at a condo where they had been staying at 4810 Central Ave. At the time of his arrest, Bolling listed the condo as his address while Ferrer listed an Atoka, Tenn., address. A news release from Hot Springs police issued Wednesday listed Bolling's address as Nashville and Ferrer's as Memphis.
A statewide AMBER alert was issued for the missing teen Tuesday morning, and she was found shortly before 3:30 p.m. that day in the 4700 block of Central Avenue with minor injuries. She was taken to a local hospital for a medical assessment and was interviewed later by police.
During the course of the investigation, detectives developed Bolling and Ferrer as suspects and located them at the condos, where they were taken into custody without further incident, the release said.
A gag order was issued in the case limiting pretrial publicity. Charges against Bolling and Ferrer are being filed under seal, so the affidavits in the cases were not available.
According to the AMBER alert, the victim had left work at a downtown business along with a female co-worker around 9:15 p.m. Monday. They were walking to their vehicles, which were parked a block away, when the two were met by an unknown white female standing near a parked vehicle.
The female asked the victim if she could use her phone, stating she was lost and her parents were staying in a condo in Hot Springs. She then "changed her mind" and asked the victim if she could use the phone to utilize the GPS coordinates and asked her to walk closer to her vehicle.
During this time, the victim's co-worker said she would go and get her vehicle, which was parked nearby. When she returned to pick up the victim, she was nowhere to be found, the alert said.
Garland County Prosecuting Attorney Michelle Lawrence confirmed the information in the alert, telling The Sentinel-Record on Wednesday that Ferrer "lured the victim into her car and got her into the passenger seat" and then she was kidnapped.
Lawrence said the victim "was just trying to be a good Samaritan" to a young woman who was apparently lost.
"She didn't do anything wrong," she said. "She was just being a nice person and trying to help her."
According to the alert, after discovering the victim was gone, the co-worker attempted to call her but got no answer. She then panicked and called the victim's mother, who attempted multiple times to call the victim's phone.
The victim reportedly answered at one point and said, "everything is fine," but then a male voice came across the phone and demanded $10,000 for the victim's return or "they would kill and cut up the victim."
The phone went dead at that point and no further contact was made. The cellphone was pinged by police and was last headed south on Arkansas 7 south of Hot Springs.
Information for this article was contributed by David Showers of The Sentinel-Record.