Kidnapped On Camera | Carlesha Freeland-Gaither's Case
THE ABDUCTION OFF THE STREET
Pay attention to the woman in this video. As she’s about to get kidnapped.
On November 2nd, 2014, Philadelphia police receives a call from this man, who says he saw a woman, being forced into a car. Minutes later, police get their hands on this security footage. The first thing they see, is a car, turning on Coulter street. 20 seconds later, a bus stops at the red light, but it’s impossible to see if anyone got off. Until 16 seconds later, a dark shape emerges. The young woman is walking alone at night, after she missed the bus. But look closer. She has no idea, that someone, is following her. As she starts crossing the street, the man engages her in conversation. She turns around to face him, but you can see that she’s still backing up. Then, they seem to shake hands, but the man doesn’t let go. And they disappear behind the street corner. On the ground, Police find a pair of glasses, some broken glass, and a phone. They have no idea what happened beyond that corner. Until they discover, there’s another security camera.
SECURITY FOOTAGE REVEALS MORE
Detectives cue the footage at 9:39pm, just before the bus arrives. Again, they see the car that turned on Coulter street. It slows down, and parks just beside the camera. Then, the bus comes into view. After it stops on Greene street, they expect to see the young woman appear at the top, in about 40 seconds. But just 16 seconds later, there’s an ominous development. A dark figure emerges from the bottom of the screen. They see him crossing over to the North side. Detectives are convinced, this is the same man.
The woman is now visible too. The suspect hesitates, before he follows her through the intersection. The other camera was ambiguous. But this view is not. And what happens next, may be disturbing for some viewers.
What you are watching, is the woman, being dragged down the sidewalk by the man. Although she’s fighting to get away, he completely overpowers her. When they approach the camera, the man forces her into the parked car.
At the last minute, it appears she is trying to get away. But look closer, she does something that could save her life. When police review the footage, they see the woman is carrying her cell phone, while the man forces her down the street. But seconds later, she drops it on the ground. With her cell phone, Police can finally identify the kidnapped woman. 22 year old Nursing aid Carlesha Freeland Gaither.
EYEWITNESS: DWAYNE FLETCHER
As detectives are rewatching the footage, they notice something else in the recording. At the top, there’s another dark shape that appears to be walking around in the street. This, is Dwayne Fletcher, the same man who called 911.
He tells police he saw Carlesha before the attack, and she already looked nervous.
At 9:39pm, he was walking on Greene Street, headed to the nearby convenience store, when he came up behind her. But just one minute later, he hears a scream.
Fletcher hurries back down Coulter street, before he sees Carlesha getting shoved into a parked car. He runs over, as fast as he can. Dwayne takes cover, convinced that what he heard was a gunshot. Then, the car drives off. Fletcher can’t help but think, he could’ve done more to save her. But his heart drops when police tell him, no bullets or shell casings were found at the crime scene, and that the sound he heard, was likely the window exploding as the girl was trying to escape.
Fletcher, is destroyed. If the girl dies, he might never forgive himself.
THE SEARCH BEGINS
Monday, November 3rd. 12 hours after Carlesha was abducted, agents have already interviewed every family member, friend and coworker. But still, Police have no leads.
Other family members join the search, printing missing posters, and handing out flyers.
Authorities turn to the public for help, broadcasting the footage of the abduction on every news channel.
The problem is, the quality of the footage makes it impossible to identify the man. A man they should know, because he’s already the suspect in another abduction which took place just one month earlier. His name, is Delvin Barnes, and he’s an alleged serial killer.
When the teenage girl miraculously escaped, she told police that Barnes had shown her pictures of his previous victims. He would hold them captive for 2 days, before disposing of them. When the girl was sent to the hospital, police tried serving an arrest warrant on Barnes, but he was already gone.
The clock is ticking before the same thing happens to Carlesha.
A BREAK IN THE CASE
Tuesday, November 4th. 36 hours have passed. A 47 thousand dollar reward is announced, and finally, the tips start pouring in.
Of the hundreds of calls that come in, one of them stands out. A woman says she found unusual debris on her property. But she’s from Havre-De-Grace, Maryland. More than 70 miles from where Carlesha was kidnapped.
When agents arrive on site, they’re stunned.
Apart from the broken glass, they find candy wrappers, potato chip bags, a cut zip tie, a receipt, and an earring, all inside a single plastic bag. The evidence is too clean, almost like it was planted there for someone to find.
But what catches their attention, is that the receipt is from a supermarket, back in Philadelphia, and the time stamp says 1:50pm, just hours before the abduction.
The agents are hoping they could get a better image of their suspect.
At 1:43pm, in walks a man wearing a black hat, a dark hoody and pants. Just like Carlesha’s abductor. He puts his hand up to his face, seemingly trying to hide his identity. The problem is, none of the camera angles gives them a clear view of his face.
And while the footage is shared with the public, there’s little chance it will help the investigation. But the FBI have worse news. Back at the farm in Maryland, Special Agent Percy Giles makes a disturbing discovery, when they find car tracks, that lead into a nearby body of water.
The FBI immediately sends out divers to search the entire Susquehanna river, all through the night.
It’s November 4th, 9:40pm. 48 hours have passed since the abduction, and investigators are losing hope that they will ever find Carlesha alive. At the same moment, just over 30 miles away, Carlesha is trapped inside the trunk of a moving car, wondering what’s going to happen next.
She doesn't know if she’ll ever be saved, but Carlesha has been doing everything she can, to leave clues behind for the police.
CARLESHA'S STORY
Her story starts on November 2nd, the day of the abduction. At around 9:30pm, Carlesha is walking home from a birthday party, and headed to a bus stop.
Carlesha breathes a sigh of relief, thinking maybe she was worried for nothing.
A few seconds later, a man walks up to her, asking for directions. After Carlesha helps him find his way, he holds out his hand to thank her.
As he starts dragging her down the street, she’s overtaken by fear. No matter how hard she fights back, he still manages to carry her to his car. But with everything that’s happening, she still has the presence of mind to leave a clue behind.
The man drags her back into his car and gets into the front seat. While his back is turned, Carlesha rushes over to try and open the other door, but the child-lock is on.
The man then starts the car, and drives off. Carlesha is trapped. She doesn’t know what his intentions are, and she’s terrified.
As they drive out of Philadelphia, Carlesha can see her whole world pass by.
The man then gets on Interstate 95, and heads south. Less than 30 minutes after the abduction, he gets off the highway, and parks the car in a secluded area. This is where he will rape Carlesha, for what will be the first, of many times.
THE BAG IN THE FIELD
Tuesday, November 3rd. Carlesha is locked in the trunk of a moving car, when she feels it slowing down in a rugged area. When the man opens the trunk, she finds they’re parked in a field, far from any house or passing cars. It’s still dark outside, and the man intends to sleep, but he’s not about to let Carlesha out of his sight.
As she’s lying there in the dark, unable to sleep, with a monster right next to her, the horrific events keep playing in her mind. And it’s all too much to bear. She’s thinking of giving up. And then, she thinks of her grandmother, who took her in as a child, and took care of her, when her parents couldn’t. Her grandmother who loves her so much, and who would be heartbroken if she were to lose her. Carlesha knows she must do everything she can to stay alive. So she can see her grandmother again.
5:45am. When the man finally wakes up, he asks Carlesha to throw out the trash he has in the car. As she’s standing beside the vehicle, in the middle of an open field, the idea of running away immediately comes to mind.
But as she’s stuffing the trash inside a plastic bag, she gets another idea. Among the empty chipbags and candy wrappers, she puts a handful of shattered glass from the floor of the car, the cut zip ties, and one of her earrings, inside the bag.
6am. The man drives into the parking lot of a PNC bank. He asks Carlesha for her card. And she quickly realizes, this is a good thing.
CRUCIAL EVIDENCE AND A RACE AGAINST TIME
November 4th, 2 days since Carlesha was kidnapped. The FBI gets notified that her card was used, just 5 miles down the road, from where the trash was found. When they view the footage from the ATM booth, the images show the same man from the supermarket, walking in.
Once again, the quality of the footage makes it impossible to see his face. However, there’s one thing the footage tells detectives. Carlesha must have been alive at the time it was recorded. She had to give him her pin code, so he could use her card.
The agents on site get another idea. Is it possible the man spent some of this money nearby? They start with a convenience store, less than a mile away. Finally, they hit paydirt.
Now, the FBI has a face for their suspect, and the footage of him walking through the convenience store, is aired across the country.
But by the end of the day, they still haven’t found the identity of their suspect. And after being held captive for more than 48 hours, Carlesha is beginning to lose hope that she will ever be found.
USING TRUE CRIME SKILLS
On day 2, Carlesha is no longer ziptied, and the man often leaves the back seat down, while Carlesha is in the trunk. As he’s focused on driving, Carlesha tries to engage him in conversation.
She uses the training she had from working with high risk patients at the hospital. Slowly, she disarms him, and encourages him to open up. This is how she learns he has a daughter.
But then, Delvin Barnes starts to talk about his other victims. He gives her details of what he did to each of them, and she quickly understands, she’s dealing with a serial killer.
IDENTIFYING THE SUSPECT
November 5th, 3 days after the abduction. Officials in Richmond, Virginia, see the footage on the news, and finally identify the man, as 37 year old Delvin Barnes, a suspect in another kidnapping, with a history of violent crimes. The news is horrifying.
They need to act fast. A team is sent to Virginia, to Barnes’s residence in Richmond. They interrogate his family, neighbors, ex partners. One ex-wife confirms Barnes’s car was in fact, a grey Ford Taurus, the same vehicle that was seen driving off with Carlesha. Agents quickly go around the city, and locate the dealership where the car was purchased. By a stroke of luck, it just so happens, the dealership had put a tracking device on Barnes’s car.
The dealership is able to pinpoint the exact location of the car. That’s when they find out, the vehicle is still in Maryland, in a town called Jessup.
While every unit is being dispatched to the location, Barnes is making plans of his own.
THE RESCUE OPERATION
That day, Barnes is parked at a stripmall, and plans to hijack another vehicle.
It’s 5:15pm. ATF Special Agent David Cheplak, is one of the closest to Jessup, Maryland. With the description of the vehicle, he heads to a local stripmall parking lot.
From a distance, he can see there’s a black garbage bag covering up a broken window. He knows it’s the right vehicle. But they can’t see anyone inside the car.
The ATF agents on site are instructed to wait for back-up before approaching the vehicle.
Agents surround the vehicle in a hurry. While Delvin Barnes is sitting in the driver’s seat, the agents point their guns at him, and put him under arrest.
The agents then make their way to the rear door, but the window is blocked by the garbage bag. They still can’t see if Carlesha is inside the vehicle… Until finally… they open the door.
Carlesha is taken to the hospital, where finally, she’s reunited with her grandmother.
Now that she's safe in her grandmother's arms, Carlesha is finally able to rest, knowing she fulfilled her promise.
AFTERMATH & DWAYNE FLETCHER'S RETURN
When news of her rescue is shared with the public, Dwayne Fletcher, the man who witnessed the abduction, can finally breathe a sigh of relief. And while he blames himself for not doing enough, others see him as a hero in this story.
When she learned about what Dwayne Fletcher did the night of her abduction, Carlesha wanted to reach out, to express her gratitude. One year after the incident, they finally spoke on the phone.
While he maintains that what he did was just the right thing to do, Fletcher sees Carlesha’s rescue as a turning point from his troubled past life.
Today, Fletcher owns a boxing gym, in north Philadelphia, where he teaches young girls and women, how to defend themselves. He says he wants to make sure, that what happened to Carlesha, never happens again.
JUSTICE AND A NEW LIFE
As for Delvin Barnes, 3 days after he abducted Carlesha Freeland Gaither, he’s interrogated by federal agents.
Barnes pleads guilty to one count of federal kidnapping and is sentenced to 35 years in prison. Because of Carlesha, his reign of terror, has finally come to an end.
Today, Carlesha is a mom. And she embraces every moment with her son.
When she looks back at the events of 2014, Carlesha says she’s glad Barnes picked her, instead of someone else.
Carlesha’s story tells us, that even when the odds are stacked against us, and things seem impossible, we must never give up.
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Credits
Written, directed & edited by Justin Chalifoux
Research by Tiffany Loxton
Voiceover by William Akana
Produced by Alexandra Salois & Salim Sader
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Sources
See No Evil - Captured on Camera (Investigation Discovery)
Caught on Camera: The Untold Stories (Discovery Plus)
Crimes Gone Viral (Lion Television)
Abducted off the Street: The Carlesha Gaither Story (Lifetime)
ABC-7
CBS Philadelphia
NBC 10 Philadelphia
WBAL TV-11 Baltimore
28/22 News
Dwayne Fletcher (Instagram)
Top 4 Wildest High-Speed Police Chases with Suspects on the Run.mp4 (Law & Crime Network)
Philadelphia Police Department
Getty Images
