Witnesses to abduction attempt sought

A Carson City women who says she was the victim of an attempted abduction last weekend is looking for a couple who may have witnessed the failed attempt.

Laura Maher said shortly after midnight early Saturday morning she parked her car on Dan Street with her hazard lights flashing so she could cross Roop Street and hang a yard-sale sign on a telephone pole near Lone Mountain Cemetery.

As she stapled her large yellow sign to the pole, she said, one of two cars that passed by stopped and parked on Roop Street. After a few moments, a man emerged from the car and started toward her.

"I thought maybe he thought I needed help because of my hazard lights were flashing, and so I turned to tell him I was OK," she said. "The second I turned to him I knew I was in trouble."

Maher claims the man had his hand extended as if reaching for her, was moving quickly at her, but never said a word. Without a second thought, she recalled, she bolted across the street and jumped into her unlocked car.

"Now he's running across the street after me," she said. "The second I locked the doors he was pulling my door handle."

Within moments, she said, a car with possibly two people inside pulled in behind her on Dan Street and waited because she was blocking the road.

She said when the driver's door wouldn't open, the man ran to another door and tried that one and then tried to open a third door, all of which were locked.

When he couldn't get in the car, she said, he began to pound on her trunk.

"I got my car started by the time he got to the back of my car and the witnesses, who don't know they were witnesses, saw the whole thing," she said. "It probably looked like a lovers quarrel to them."

Maher said she raced from the scene only to turn around and write down the license plate number from the man's car.

About 1:30 a.m. police ran the plate and went to the home of a 20-year-old man.

According to the police report, the man admitted stopping at Roop and Dan streets to offer the woman help.

He said the woman ran from him and he "may have walked briskly or ran" after her.

Not knowing what she wanted, the man said he attempted to push start her car.

Maher said her car is an automatic.

"I want to find out who those people were behind me," she said. "I don't know where all of them came from, but I promise you, he would have charged me and would have caught me if they hadn't been there."

She hopes if the people will come forward and give police a statement that will support her belief that the man meant to harm her.

"Those witnesses watched him beat on my car," she said. "I feel like the girl that got away. This has changed my life."

Anyone who may have witnessed the incident about 12:20 a.m. Saturday morning is asked to call Lt. Ken Sandage at the Carson City Sheriff's Department.

The case will be forwarded to the District Attorney's Office for review, Sandage said.

Contact F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.