April 28, 1985, had started off well enough. Jed and Elizabeth, both seniors, returned from their senior trip after an all-night flight. It had been a great ten days in Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Italy. Both were glad, though, to be home.
While the guys were unloading the luggage, Mrs. Dewitt, the school secretary, called out to Jed. “Mr. Sitton called. Could you drop Elizabeth off on your way home? He’s sorry, but he got called in to the plant because of a breakdown.”
“Sure, no problem.” Jed grabbed Elizabeth’s bags, threw them into the back of his Bronco, and opened the passenger door. He passed her house on the way to his own anyway, and he knew his folks weren’t home. He helped her into the passenger seat of his Bronco, closed the door, then went around and got into the driver’s side and started the engine.
Elizabeth pouted. Her dad always got called in. He didn’t think the factory could run without him! To a measure, it couldn’t, but that didn’t make Elizabeth like it any better. Since her mother died of cancer three years ago, it was just the two of them, and Elizabeth had missed her dad terribly while she was in Europe.
Meanwhile, Pete Richardson timed his abduction just right. He parked in the driveway of an empty house a block from the school and waited for the bus to arrive from the airport. When he saw the bus was unloaded, he drove his car to a spot just short of the school drive and turned the engine off. He released the hood latch and got out of the car, but he didn’t bother pulling the key; he wouldn’t need this car any longer.
Opening the hood, Pete bent over the engine as if looking for a problem while he kept one eye on the school parking lot, watching for Jed’s Bronco to pull out. He rubbed his hands on the top of the engine just enough to get some dirt and oil on them and smudged more dirt on his forehead, as if he had brushed the back of his hand across it. When he saw Jed’s Ford Bronco move, he stood with hands on his hips looking disgustedly at the car. Pete knew Jed would stop, and Pete could take over from there.
Seeing Pete standing by his car, Jed stopped his truck and rolled down his window. “Hey Pete, what’s wrong?”
“Oh! Hi, Jed, glad to see you! My engine isn’t running, and I have to get to the hangar right away for your dad.”
Jed turned to Elizabeth and asked, “Are you in a big hurry? Would you mind if I dropped Pete off at the plane on the way home?”
Elizabeth looked at him with a frown and said, “It really doesn’t matter. I’ve no reason to hurry home. There’s no telling when Daddy will get there.”
Jed turned back to Pete and said, “Jump in the back seat if you want. I’ll be happy to run you out to the plane.”
Pete grabbed a bag from the back seat of his car and walked over to the Bronco and crawled into the back seat. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you had your girlfriend with you.” This extra girl would change his plans quite a bit, but it actually might work better.
“Oh, Elizabeth isn’t my girlfriend. She’s Mr. Sitton’s daughter. I’m just giving her a lift home because her dad is stuck working on a breakdown out at the plant.”
Jed drove to the company hangar, which was between Hoppleberg’s small airport and the lake. . “Here you go, Pete,” he said as he turned around to look at Pete, but his eyes bugged when he saw the .38 caliber revolver Pete held in his hand.
“I’m sorry, Jed, but I have to do this. I have no other choice. You won’t be hurt—I promise you, but I have to be sure of things. Now, I need you to drive the Bronco into the hangar.”
Jed parked the Bronco inside the hangar next to the airplane. At Pete’s order, he unloaded and secured their luggage in the back of the airplane and then climbed into the back left seat. Elizabeth sat down in the seat next to him. Pete handed her a handcuff and told her to put one end of the cuffs around Jed’s right wrist, then pull it through the seat support and fasten the other end around her own left wrist. He watched carefully as she did so, slipped the gun into his pocket, pre-flighted the airplane, pushed it out of the hangar, and closed and locked the doors. Pete confirmed the door was latched and from his pocket pulled a small tube and removed the cap. He inserted the tip of the tube into the keyhole, squirted a small amount of liquid into the lock, capped the tube, and tossed it into the lake. He climbed into the pilot’s seat, started the engine, and took flight.