For nearly four hours Thursday, police combed a wide area from Clayton County to West Midtown looking for an 86-year-old woman who was abducted from outside a Jonesboro convenience store.
The woman, who is diagnosed with dementia, was waiting in the passenger seat of an SUV parked on North Main Street when a man climbed behind the wheel and drove off shortly before 3:30 p.m., according to police. The incident kicked off a massive search that led authorities into Atlanta, where the woman was eventually located at a restaurant on Howell Mill Road at about 7:15 p.m.
The kidnapping suspect, identified by police as 33-year-old Taron Williams of Forest Park, was arrested nearly two hours later in DeKalb County.
In surveillance video released by Clayton police, a man wearing tan clothing and carrying a backpack can be seen pacing in front of the convenience store as he appears to talk on the phone. He then approaches a gray 2016 Nissan Rogue on the passenger side, where her family said the 86-year-old woman was waiting for her caregiver.
The man appears to speak to the woman at her window before walking around to the driver’s side, getting into the vehicle and backing out of the parking lot.
The Nissan was spotted twice Thursday, first at about 4:30 p.m. in Atlanta near the Georgia Tech campus and again at about 8:40 p.m. in the Candler-McAfee area of DeKalb. Police in that jurisdiction said they monitored Williams’ movements before arresting him and turning him over to the custody of Clayton police.
Williams was taken to the Clayton jail, where he was being held without bond on felony charges of kidnapping and theft by taking.
A woman who identified herself as the victim’s granddaughter said the 86-year-old could not distinguish strangers and should have never been left alone. She was medically evaluated Thursday before being taken home, the granddaughter said in a public post on Facebook.
