Santa Fe College police found a student's lost backpack Sunday morning from a kidnapping three days earlier, but the main culprit remains at large.
The 18-year-old Trenton woman is safe after jumping out of the kidnapper's truck Thursday night, but she lost some possessions while fighting off the suspect in an SFC parking lot. She is still missing some items, including her BlackBerry, SFPD Chief Ed Book said.
The backpack was recovered Sunday morning when officers searched the campus. Daryl Johnston, director of the college's Institute of Public Safety, found the white backpack in a grass field on the northwest corner of campus.
Book said the backpack was not in the field the day before. On Saturday, the Alachua County Sherriff's Office released a statement saying police were trying to find the bag and cellphone.
While officers searched for the victim Thursday, a witness told them two people had riffled through a backpack in the parking lot before taking it.
"After we put out info about the backpack, whoever had it must have come by and dropped it off," Book said. "We had searched there the day before and could not find anything."
Book thinks the BlackBerry was left behind, taken by the kidnapper or stolen from the backpack.
The kidnapping suspect forced the victim into his pickup truck at gunpoint between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. Thursday. The victim, whose name has not been released, later escaped when the truck slowed down on Northwest 39th Avenue, Sheriff's Office spokesman Art Forgey said.
A resident from the 1200 block of 39th Avenue called 911 around 7:50 p.m. Thursday reporting that a woman was screaming for help. The victim last saw the suspect driving west.
The victim is unsure of the man's race, but she said his complexion is dark, according to a Sheriff's Office statement released Friday night. The suspect stands somewhere between 5 feet 8 inches and 5 feet 11 inches, and he is in his late 20s or early 30s.
He has short hair, an unshaven face and a right hand marked with a tattoo on the back, according to the Sheriff's Office. He was wearing a dark hoodie and jeans when he committed the crime.
The suspect's pickup truck is small and a dark color, Forgey said. It has dark-tinted windows and a gray interior.
The search began when the woman's parents called SFPD around 6:30 p.m., Forgey said. They noticed something was wrong when their daughter wasn't home in time for dinner.
The parents told SFPD where their daughter normally parks, and officers found evidence of a struggle near her car.
Anyone with knowledge of the kidnapping should call the Sheriff's Office at 352-955-1818. If you wish to remain anonymous, you can call Crime Stoppers at 352-372-7867.
