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Friday, March 29, 2024

Kidnapping Arrest

Credit: WCBI
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Kidnapping Arrest
Kidnapping Arrest

A family in Guntown have been the victims of a fake robbery lead by they son.

Drugs seem to be the motive.

Intro we've all had days that we've wanted to disappear.

But two men in lee county are accused of taking it to the extreme... by faking a kidnapping.

Wcbi's allie martin has more on this bizarre story... the case began thursday when the lee county sheriff's department was contacted by a virginia resident who said they got a facetime call showing their son, tied up to a tree, with a gun to his head.

Lee county sheriff jim johnson says the call was made from this guntown property and it was all orchestrated to get money to cover a drug debt.

That initial phone call was the first of several, as the parents in virginia thought their son was at the mercy of a kidnapper, who was demanding a 500 dollar ransom.

"after about 12 hours of negotiating back and forth, the parents received a telephone call from who they believed to be their son begging for his life, and heard what they thought was a gunshot, at that point they assumed the kidnapper had killed their son."

Eventually, the parents got a call from their son saying he was still alive, but the kidnapper would kill him the next time.

Text messages were then received, threatening more harm to their son.

"they set a timeline every ten minutes they would send photos of body parts that were being removed , they received after a specific amount of time, several photographs of a hand that had damage to it, to the point it had a nail driven through the finger."

Sheriff johnson says the parents did not believe the photo was of their son's hand.

At that point, investigators , acting as the parents, took over negotiations and set up a time for the kidnappers to get the ransom money at a lee county western union location.

Investigators arrested 24 year old andrew blake hawks as he was at the counter, trying to collect the ransom money, which by then had dropped to 200 dollars.

His accomplice, 36 year old david g fisher was also arrested.

Both are charged with extortion.

The sheriff says it was all a ruse to cover drug debts.

"you get involved in the drug cartel and don't pay your debt, to that bunch, you will do almost anything to keep from losing your life, may lose it anyway, because debt still hasn't been paid, drug deal is still owed, he's pretty safe where he's at right now."

Hawks is being held on a 150 thousand dollar bond, fisher's bond was set at 100 thousand dollars.

Both are still in jail.

In lee county, allie martin, wcbi news johnson says hawks is also charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

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