Pair kidnaps girl and threatens to kill her if family doesn’t pay $10,000, feds say
In an attempt to extort an Arkansas girl’s family out of $10,000, a man and woman kidnapped the minor and demanded ransom from a relative, according to federal authorities.
Now more than a year later, Samuel Wayne Bolling Jr. and Dayla Diane Ferrer have been sentenced to prison, according to a Nov. 2 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Arkansas.
Bolling, 40, was sentenced to life in prison, and Ferrer, 21, was ordered to 15 years in prison, authorities said.
Their defense attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on Nov. 3.
Authorities said Bolling and Ferrer had “entered into an agreement” to kidnap the girl and extort her family. The girl was under the age of 18, but prosecutors did not specify her exact age, according to court records.
Following through with the agreement, Ferrer approached the girl at about 9 p.m. April 18, 2022, in downtown Hot Springs, Arkansas, authorities said. She asked for help with directions, and then the girl got into the vehicle, according to prosecutors.
As the girl got into the vehicle, authorities said Bolling “immediately attacked and restrained” her. He placed a hood over her head and hit her in the head with a flashlight, according to his plea agreement.
Ferrer drove away from the area, authorities said, and Bolling used the girl’s phone to call one of her family members.
During the call, the man threatened that the girl “would be sold to human sex traffickers or cut up into little pieces and disposed of in a lake” if they did not receive $10,000, according to court records. Authorities said he also demanded the family member not contact police.
After the call ended, the girl’s phone was turned off and tossed out, authorities said. The man and woman then took the girl to a resort in Hot Springs where they had been staying, prosecutors said.
Ferrer and Bolling forced the girl into the home, where she was duct taped and zip tied with a hood over her head through the rest of the night and into the next day, according to court records. They released her on April 19, 2022, authorities said.
Following an investigation into the kidnapping, Ferrer and Bolling were arrested and charged, records show.
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