IT WAS STILL LIGHT OUT when Kelsey Smith walked out of her local Target store in Overland Park, a Kansas City suburb, on a Saturday evening this past June. A vibrant 18-year-old who’d just graduated from high school, Kelsey had been shopping for a gift for her boyfriend. What happened when she emerged into the large Target parking lot wasn’t witnessed by any other patrons.
But a surveillance video shows an eerie chain of events: A pickup drove into the lot moments after Kelsey arrived, and a man entered the store after her. What appeared to be the same man left the store shortly before Kelsey did and confronted her at her car. Four days later, her body was found in a wooded area about 20 miles from the scene of the abduction. That night, 26-year-old Edwin Hall was arrested, and in July, he was indicted on charges of murder, rape sodomy, and kidnapping. Hall has pleaded not guilty.
Kelsey’s kidnapping and murder was a horrifying reminder of this reality: Some of the most ordinary day-to-day activities can provide the perfect set-up for predators. Many abductions occur, as Kelsey’s did, in such common situations—going to and from work or running errands—in which women seem completely safe.
That misguided comfort level is exactly what potential abductors know how to exploit. Meanwhile, media coverage of the kidnapping of children sometimes obscures the fact that young adult women remain a popular target of sex offenders.
As a sex-crimes prosecutor in New York City, I saw certain spots crop up as prime locations for abductions—abductions that all to frequently ended in murder. Here are the most dangerous places—some of which may surprise you—and how to protect yourself against a perpetrator who is counting on your assumptions of safety.
Parking Lots
All across the country, stores, schools, and office complexes are surrounded by parking lots. These vast, often empty spaces make a kidnapper’s job easy—especially if he’s targeting an employee. Some businesses may encourage their workers to park at the far ends of the lots, leaving spaces near the entrance more accessible for customers and clients.
So someone leaving work—or shopping—at the end of the day often has a long walk to her car, and the familiarity of the terrain may make her unwary. She may be talking on her cell or listening to tunes on headphones, counting on the fact that there are surveillance cameras posted (though no one is watching them 24/7).
Dru Sjodin, 22, a student at the University of North Dakota, found herself in precisely that situation one day in November 2003. She clocked out of the shift she worked at Victoria’s Secret in the busy Columbia Mall in Grand Forks at 4 p.m., then stopped at another store in the mall before heading for her car. She was talking to her boyfriend on her cell phone. Suddenly, he heard her say to someone, “Okay, okay!” Then the line went dead.
Dru’s body wasn’t found until the next April, across state lines in Minnesota, when the snow had melted. She was at the bottom of a ravine and had been bound, stabbed, beaten, and, prosecutors believe, sexually assaulted. Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., a level III maximum-risk registered sex offender, was later convicted and sentenced to death for abducting and killing Dru.
The simplest safety step you can take in a parking lot is to avoid being unaccompanied, but that’s not always possible. If you’ve parked at a remote corner of a parking lot and it seems deserted, don’t be shy about asking security to escort you. Always have your keys at the ready and your eyes scanning the lot. If you seem very self-aware, a potential attacker may be less likely to take you on.
Taxi and Livery Cabs
Most people don’t think twice about hopping into a cab—in fact, it often seems like a safer bet than walking or taking public transportation late at night. But think about it: Once you’ve gotten into someone’s car, you’re at that person’s mercy. So you’d better make sure you can trust him.
Years ago, I prosecuted a case in which, following a holiday party, a group of young lawyers hailed what they thought was a yellow cab to take home one of their intoxicated colleagues. The woman passed out within several blocks and was awakened miles away by the weight of the driver’s body on her own. He was trying to rape her. She was able to push him of, open the door, and roll out onto the pavement, screaming for help.
The cabbie was a fake, not licensed by the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission. He drove around the city late at night, picking up fares who didn’t notice—or didn’t care about—the fact that he wasn’t legit and didn’t display any of the necessary permits or markings on his car.
It’s not just a big-city phenomenon. Earlier this year in Louisville, Kentucky, a 23-year-old woman got into a 1989 Cadillac that carried magnetic signs reading Area Transportation. The car’s owner, Martin Phillip Jackson, even had business cards for his “taxi service.” Once his unsuspecting victim was inside, Jackson allegedly locked the doors and assaulted her, punching and choking her when she tried to escape. The police responded to a 911 call from a passerby and were finally able to apprehend Jackson—after a high-speed chase. His victim was found unconscious, barely breathing, on the back floorboards of the car. It turned out that Jackson had been convicted of abducting a woman in a similar manner two years earlier. He has pleaded not guilty to the latest charges.
In most places, taxi drivers are required to include lettering with the company name, inspection stickers, fare rates, and permits that display the driver’s picture. Always check these out before you commit to a ride, and never accept a ride from a freelance livery driver cruising for fares.
Your Car
Talk about assuming you’re safe—most women feel very much that way in their own cars. But some predators have ingenious ways of turning that against you, so that your car becomes part of their getaway.
In Fort Worth, Texas, a few years ago, a 20-year-old woman was backing out of a space at a local grocery store when she noticed a man standing behind her pickup and stopped to avoid hitting him. He came around to the driver’s side, abruptly reached or the door handle, and asked her for a ride. When she refused, he lifted his hand to her neck—holding a knife—pushed her over, and got into the driver’s seat.
She tried to slide away across the seat and open the passenger door, but her assailant, Claudio Diaz, pulled her back in and drove onto the interstate. While driving, Diaz demanded her money and jewelry, fondled her, and exposed himself, making her touch his genitals. The brave young woman jumped out of the pickup while it was on the highway. She was rescued by a driver who saw her escape, which probably saved her life. Diaz was convicted of aggravated kidnapping and robbery and sentenced to a total of 140 years in prison.
Other cases have involved a man either jumping into a woman’s car at a traffic light and using a weapon to force her to follow his orders or hiding in the backseat of an unlocked car. Preventing this kind of tragedy is fairly simple: Make your car your protector, and don’t assume you are invulnerable. Lock all the doors, even while driving, and never allow a stranger to lure you out of the car or approach too closely. Better rude than hurt.
Familiar Streets
Walking is such a basic right that most people take for granted. But unfortunately, young women are indeed vulnerable to abduction when walking unaccompanied, even in daylight and on a busy street. Shocking proof of that occurred this past May, when 17-year-old Kara Kopetsky disappeared from Belton, Missouri (she was last seen leaving her school). She vanished just a month before Kelsey Smith was murdered, and Smith’s body was found about 10 miles from Kopetsky’s home.
Similarly, college students usually feel protected by the campus environment, but this past winter, two students at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, in separate incidents less than two weeks apart, were plucked from the streets and abducted. Both attacks occurred in the early evening as the students walked home, on a street very close to student housing.
In both cases, the brazen assailant grabbed his victim on the sidewalk, holding a knife to her throat and then pushing her into his waiting car, where he bound her and drove off. After sexually assaulting her, he returned her to the campus area and drove away, Fortunately, because his DNA was already in the state databank, police arrested this alleged attacker before he found other victims (at a July arraignment, he pleaded not guilty).
Your best protection is always having someone with you, especially after dark. When walking alone, move quickly and with purpose.
Your Own Home
This is where most people feel safest, but the recent attack on a Connecticut family was a reminder of how illusory that security can be. Two men allegedly broke into a house in the quiet town of Cheshire, sexually assaulted at least one of the female residents, forced the mother to withdraw $15,000 from a local bank, then strangled her to death, set fire to the house, and fled. The two daughters, ages 11 and 17, died of smoke inhalation. The father sustained severe head injuries but survived.
Then there’s the case of Elizabeth Smart, which transfixed the nation five years ago. She is the 14-year-old who was kidnapped from her bedroom in Salt Lake City. She was rescued nine months later when her alleged abductors were recognized by passersby after an America’s Most Wanted episode.
It can begin to seem as if no place is safe, but you can be as free as you want if you’re well informed and cautious (at home, for instance, lock all doors and windows at night, and use a security system, if possible).
Remember, just knowing that you might be vulnerable in these places will help ward off attackers, because they are looking for unaware victims. Once you know that a predator has a method to his madness, you can avoid becoming a target.