Man suspected of injuring, abducting women booked into Clark County Jail

Credit: Marshall Gorby

Credit: Marshall Gorby

A man suspected of severely injuring one woman and tying up and abducting another has been booked into the Clark County Jail.

Charles E. Womack Jr. 49, of Zanesfield was arrested at gunpoint on Tuesday by the Allen County Sheriff’s Office near Fort Wayne, Indiana. He was booked into the Clark County Jail Friday on preliminary charges of two counts of kidnapping, two counts of abduction and one count of felonious assault.

On Tuesday afternoon, Clark County Sheriff’s deputies and a medical helicopter responded to a house in the 600 block of Hiser Avenue in Moorefield Township on a report of a woman tied up and another severely injured in the basement.

Emergency crews found a woman who was restrained and another who was severely injured, according to Maj. Christopher Clark of the Clark County Sheriff’s Office. The restrained woman was the one to call 911.

CareFlight took the injured woman to Miami Valley Hospital.

On investigation, the sheriff’s office said that Womack was a casual dating partner of the homeowner and came to visit earlier in the day.

During the visit, Womack started an argument with the tenant who lives in the basement, and after the homeowner got involved Womack shoved the tenant down the basement stairs, dealing life-threatening injuries, the sheriff’s office said.

He then bound the homeowner with electrical cords and took her out of the home on several trips over the course of five hours before finally leaving her in the basement, barricading the door to the basement and fleeing in his vehicle, according to the sheriff’s office.

The homeowner escaped the cords, aided the injured woman and got a phone to call 911, the sheriff’s office said.

He is scheduled to be in court on Tuesday, Jan. 17.

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