Arrest made in Cape kidnapping, rape

An arrest was made in the adult abduction reported in Cape Girardeau last week.

About 2 p.m. Friday, Jeffery M. Lazier, 43, of Coal City, Illinois, was taken into custody in Yorkville, Illinois, just west of Chicago, according to a news release from the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

Investigators from the FBI, Missouri State Highway Patrol, Illinois State Police and police departments from Cape Girardeau, Effingham, Illinois, Anna, Illinois, and Centralia, Illinois followed leads over a three-day period.

On Tuesday, a woman told police she was abducted for hours before escaping her captor. She said she was sitting in her vehicle in Cape County Park South in Cape Girardeau when she was forced into a red Ford extended-cab pickup truck between 11 a.m. and noon.

In a probable-cause statement, the victim said a man, believed to be Lazier, opened the front passenger-side door of her vehicle where she was sitting and told her to give him her wallet, cellphone and money. He held a long knife she described as "being as long as her forearm, with a serrated blade and the blade had a hook at the end," according to the statement written by detective Sgt. Jeff Bonham of Cape Girardeau Police. The victim handed the cellphone to the man, but did not have any cash, according to the statement.

After being forced into the truck, the woman was driven to various locations and sexually assaulted, according to reports.

At one point, the woman said Lazier asked where her home bank was. The probable-cause statement said the woman suggested he allow her to try to withdraw money from a bank ATM in Cape Girardeau. Security cameras captured the victim having to climb onto and over Lazier's lap attempting to withdraw money, the statement said, but she was unable to do so.

After the unsuccessful withdrawal attempt, the statement said he drove the victim to another bank in Illinois where she was able to withdraw money. After leaving the Illinois bank, the victim said she saw an opportunity and escaped from the suspect's vehicle about 5 p.m. while in Effingham on the exit 159 offramp of Interstate 57.

About 8 p.m. that night, the victim's vehicle was located in Cape County Park South and was taken to the Cape Girardeau Police

Department to be processed for evidence.

Friday morning, the Missouri State Highway Patrol Crime Lab reported fingerprints had been lifted from the vehicle and checked to Lazier's, who fit the victim's physical description and is a registered sex offender in Illinois. He also owns a red 2006 Ford F-250.

Lazier was found in Yorkville and was taken into custody by Illinois State Police and the FBI without incident, the release stated.

Lazier is being held on a warrant out of Cape Girardeau County for first-degree robbery, felony kidnapping, armed criminal action, felony first-degree sodomy and felony first-degree sexual abuse, according to the release.

His bond has been set at $250,000 cash only. Lazier is being held pending extradition back to Missouri.

srinehart@semissourian.com

388-3641

Pertinent address:

Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Effingham, Ill.

Yorkville, Ill.