kidnapping

On July 27, a woman who was attempting to leave her home in Branch County’s Kinderhook Township was stopped by a large piece of wood blocking her driveway. She got out of her vehicle to move it when she was attacked.

Four Calhoun and Branch County residents have been charged with multiple felonies for their alleged plan to abduct a child and sexually torture them to death.

Police say that in March 2017, Dontez Boykins and a 26-year-old woman were found in a disabled car on I-69, with the woman saying she had been raped by him in Marshall.

49-year-old Thaddeus Markham had been convicted by a jury in July of assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, assault by strangulation, and unlawful imprisonment.

A Battle Creek man who had been accused of rape and other crimes has now had charges against him dropped. The man had been arrested after a man and woman accused him of sexually assaulting the woman at gunpoint.

A Bedford Township man has now been arrested after a series of crimes allegedly stemming from a failed attempt to pay for sex. Authorities say that the 29-year-old suspect met up with the victims, one male and one female, at the Romantix Adult Store on Michigan Avenue.

Almost a year ago, police say a man was involved in an armed robbery and kidnapping at a Battle Creek ATM. Now, the man has been charged with multiple crimes.

28-year-old James Smith was in US District Court in Grand Rapids Thursday, and sentenced to 20 years in prison for a charge of sex trafficking of a minor. Prosecutors say that Smith, along with three other co-defendants, forced two 14-year-old runaways into prostitution, gave them drugs and threatened them with violence.

The Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office says that around 2pm Saturday, a woman had been jogging along E. MN Ave. near S 31st St. in Comstock, when a vehicle parked on the side of the road a little ahead of her; as she approached, a male suspect got out and began chasing after her.

The Calhoun County Sheriff's Office says that just after 2am Monday, deputies were called to the 5000 block of 28 Mile Rd. in Homer Township on reports of domestic assault. Authorities say that a 35-year-old Homer Township man had assaulted his 24-year-old wife, cutting her clothes off with a box cutter and barricading her in a room.