Kidnapped woman flings herself from trunk of speeding car to escape, NC sheriff says

A 38-year-old woman was found Thursday on a highway in North Carolina with severe injuries after law enforcement said she escaped from the trunk of a car during an attempted kidnapping.

Now two people are in custody and a third is on the loose.

Deputies were called to U.S. Highway 220 in Madison, North Carolina, just after 8:15 a.m. Thursday in response to a reported assault and kidnapping, the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. Madison is about 45 minutes northeast of Winston-Salem near the Virginia border.

Authorities found the woman injured in the roadway. She was taken to a hospital in the Triad, according to the release.

The sheriff’s office said three people allegedly kidnapped the woman from her motel room at the Budget Inn off Highway 220 and put her in the trunk of a car.

“After the vehicle had traveled about 200 yards, (she) was able to open the trunk and jumped from the vehicle, which was moving at a high speed at that time,” the release states.

Deputies arrested 21-year-old Takiyah Kenyhata Broadnax and a person under age 18 in connection with the alleged kidnapping. Both face charges of first-degree kidnapping, breaking and entering, and assault inflicting serious injury, according to the sheriff’s office.

Broadnax was taken to the Rockingham County Detention Center and issued a $507,500 bond for the kidnapping incident and violating probation, officials said. The minor, whose identity was not released, was taken to the juvenile detention center with a $257,500 bond for the kidnapping incident and violating probation, the release said.

The sheriff’s office said the investigation is ongoing, and a third suspect has not been found.