Woman escapes after kidnapping in Greene County
{child_flags:featured}Police: Woman escapes captors after kidnapping
{child_byline}By Mike Jones
Regional editor
mjones@observer-reporter.com
{/child_byline}
DRY TAVERN – A woman who was kidnapped from her Jefferson Township apartment early Friday and thrown into the trunk of a car hogtied and with a noose around her neck was able to escape her captors, state police said.
Two Greene County men are now jailed on charges that they attacked Chasity Forgen and threatened to kill her and dispose of her body by dumping it down an abandoned mine shaft, according to court documents.
State police investigators said Demitrius Lamont Davis and Joseph James Dean II went to Forgen’s apartment on Maple Street near Dry Tavern before sunrise Friday and assaulted her after she had called Greene County Children and Youth Services on an undisclosed matter involving Davis.
Davis threw Forgen against the wall of her apartment and then held her down as Dean tied her hands and feet together with black electrical tape and placed a rope around her neck, police said. The two men allegedly told Forgen that they were going to kill her and then throw her body in an undisclosed mine, according to court documents.
As she struggled with the men, Davis held a knife to Forgen’s back and picked up a hammer, claiming he was “going to bash her head in if she continued to fight,” state Trooper Joseph Popielarcheck wrote in court documents.
Forgen was then dragged out of her apartment and thrown into the trunk of a car, Popielarcheck said. However, she was able to find the trunk release mechanism inside, allowing her to escape. She ran to a nearby house – while being chased by Davis and Dean – and banged on the door, prompting the homeowner to allow her inside to remove the tape from her limbs and rope from her neck, police said.
It’s not known how long Forgen was in the trunk or where the vehicle was when she escaped.
Investigators interviewed Forgen and were able to recover the rope that was placed around her neck. Popielarcheck said Forgen had “trauma” to her wrists, legs and neck. Police also went to Forgen’s apartment, which they found in shambles with various items broken throughout the residence.
Davis, 40, of 520 Mather St., Mather, and Dean, 30, 1579 E. Roy Furman Highway, Carmichaels, were later arrested and arraigned early Sunday by District Judge Glenn Bates. They face charges of aggravated assault, kidnapping, terroristic threats and simple assault. Both are being held in the Greene County jail on $125,000 cash bond while they await their Jan. 17 preliminary hearings.
Neither man had a defense attorney listed in court documents.