CHIMACUM — A man who kidnapped a 16-year-old girl at gunpoint Wednesday afternoon south of Chimacum and left her unharmed a terrifying half-hour later on Dabob Post Office Road remained on the loose late Thursday afternoon, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said.
Authorities set up roadblocks and knocked on doors looking for the kidnapper in the sparsely populated area on Dabob Post Office Road from about 6 p.m. until 11 p.m. Wednesday before calling off the hunt, Chief Criminal Deputy Joe Nole said.
The girl described the kidnapper as a white man of unknown age who is about 5 feet, 10 inches tall with dark eyebrows.
The teenager could not estimate his age because he was wearing a bandanna over his nose that covered most of his face and said almost nothing during the ordeal, Nole said.
The teen told authorities he was wearing a black beanie, a black hooded sweatshirt or hooded long-sleeved T-shirt and dark-colored pants that could have been blue jeans.
The kidnapper also wore a green-and-blue bandanna that covered his nose and lower face.
Nole urged local residents to phone authorities at 360-383-3831 if they saw a person who matched that description around Milepost 7 on Center Road about 7 miles south of Chimacum at about 4:15 p.m. Wednesday.
That is what time the girl stopped her green Toyota pickup truck to pick up the man, who was walking south on the road.
She stopped to check on him because he appeared to be injured and had what appeared to be a bloody bandage around one leg.
When she stopped, the kidnapper pointed a dark-colored semiautomatic pistol at her and ordered her to let him in the vehicle, Nole said.
The kidnapper and the teenager drove around for about a half-hour, starting and stopping at different points, Nole said.
“He didn’t talk to her,” Nole said.
“He just sat there and kept the gun pointed at her [and kept] telling her where to turn and stuff.
“He didn’t touch her.”
When they stopped on Dabob Post Office Road, he ordered her out of the car and rummaged through her purse.
“She did say that when he was looking through her purse, she thought he was looking for her ID so if he took it, no one would know who she was,” Nole said.
He didn’t take anything from her purse, Nole said.
He ran into the woods at the sound of a vehicle, while she fled in a different direction, ending up on Coyle Road, where a woman motorist stopped and called 9-1-1, Nole said.
Authorities are examining the teenager’s car for evidence and fingerprints, Nole said.
Nole said the media was not notified until late Thursday afternoon because the department was working on other cases and a press release had to be written describing the incident.
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
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