Man Arrested for Allegedly Kidnapping Witness, Trying to Hold Her Hostage Until After Trial

Arkansas police arrested a man after they say he held a woman against her will for months in an attempt to stop her from testifying against him in an earlier kidnapping case, reports said.

Officers arrested Michael Jacob Lane and charged him with kidnapping, intimidating a witness and drug charges, the Pea Ridge Police Department announced Friday. Lane, 25, is accused of kidnapping a woman he knows at least three times.

The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that Faye Bethea went to police Monday and reported that her daughter, Carly Wood, was being held captive by Lane. Bethea told police her daughter contacted her on Sept. 16 and said she had been held against her will for three months but had escaped. 

Bethea told officers her daughter had gone to a women’s shelter after her September escape but didn’t want to go to police because she was fearful of Lane, the newspaper reported. She said Oklahoma authorities had previously arrested Lane in March after he allegedly kidnapped her daughter.

The mother told police that Lane had been holding her daughter against her will in an attempt to stop Wood from testifying against him at a November hearing in the Oklahoma kidnapping case, the Democrat-Gazette reported. Bethea last heard from her daughter on Sept. 29, when Wood told police that one of Lane’s acquaintances found her and brought her back to him. 

Multiple agencies searched Lane’s home and found evidence that Wood had been there, including notes suggesting that someone had been held there “with limited if any freedom,” the newspaper reported. 

"Focus on being silent and don't be seen by anyone. SHUT UP. No one should hear you or see you because you don't exist so SHUT UP and hide," one of the notes said, according to KFSM.

Wood told police that over the summer, Lane took her cell phone and told her she had to stay in a room with the lights off and to be quiet. He threatened her with violence if she attempted to leave, according to the Democrat-Gazette. 

Lane is currently jailed and awaiting a Nov. 20 arraignment, the newspaper reported. Prosecutors in the case have requested a $1 million cash bond.