Police: Cape abduction may have ties to Georgia homicide

Two men accused of abducting and robbing a Cape Girardeau woman before releasing her unharmed were arrested Friday night by officers of the Kansas Highway Patrol and the U.S. Marshals Service.

Cape Girardeau Police Sgt. Rick Schmidt said John Czarnecki and Christopher Smith were arrested in western Kansas about 7:50 p.m.

Cape Girardeau Prosecuting Attorney Chris Limbaugh late Friday filed felony charges of first-degree kidnapping and robbery and armed criminal action against the men.

John Czarnecki

Earlier in the day, Judge Benjamin Lewis signed arrest warrants for Czarnecki, 53, of Atlanta and Smith, 43, of Cave Spring, Georgia.

Lewis set a cash bond for each man at $1 million.

Czarnecki and Smith also may have ties to a Georgia homicide, according to police.

Chamblee, Georgia, police Capt. Ernesto Ford said earlier Friday officers assisted the FBI on a follow-up investigation stemming from the “violent kidnapping” Thursday in Cape Girardeau.

The vehicle used in the abduction was registered to Abraham Rudolph Jacobs, Ford said in a news release.

FBI agents “had reason to believe” Jacobs’ vehicle had been stolen, and Jacobs might be a victim, Ford said in the release.

While police attempted to contact Jacobs at his apartment near Atlanta, agents were notified one of the kidnapping suspects was identified as Czarnecki, according to the release.

Authorities identified Czarnecki as a friend of Jacobs. Both men lived in the same apartment complex, according to police.

Executing a search warrant, law-enforcement officials found the body of Jacobs inside the apartment. Police have not disclosed how he died.

Czarnecki has not been charged in the death of Jacobs, but police said warrants would be obtained charging him with the theft of Jacobs’ vehicle, a silver Suzuki Grand Vitara with a North Carolina license plate.

Czarnecki was wanted by the U.S. Marshals Service on a probation-violation warrant, Chamblee police said in the release.

Ford said police also are seeking Czarnecki’s girlfriend, Sally Noe McIntyre, who may be in danger. Czarnecki last was seen driving Jacobs’ vehicle, according to the release.

According to law-enforcement officials, Czarnecki and Smith abducted a woman in the Cape Girardeau Wal-Mart Supercenter parking lot Thursday morning.

The woman, who is in her 40s and resides in Cape Girardeau, later was found unharmed in a field near Chaffee, Missouri, Cape Girardeau police said.

“One of the suspects was armed with a knife,” Schmidt said.

According to probable-cause statements by Cape Girardeau police detectives Matthew Peters and Joe Thomas, the woman left the Wal-Mart store at 7:30 a.m. Thursday. She walked to her Jeep. She noticed a Suzuki vehicle parked next to her with two men inside.

As she was getting into the driver’s seat of her car, one of the men approached and “put a knife in her side and told her to give him her money,” according to the statements.

The victim said she did not have money. The man then demanded her debit card and told her to get in the back seat. He took her scarf off and tied her arms behind her back, according to the statements.

The woman told police the man, later identified as Czarnecki, couldn’t figure out how to start her Jeep and returned to the Suzuki.

The other man, later identified as Smith, managed to start the Jeep. The victim recalled they drove south and “kept driving around for a while,” Peters and Thomas said in their statements.

According to the woman, Smith was following Czarnecki, who was driving the Suzuki.

They ended up in a cornfield in Chaffee. The woman told authorities the men took her out of the car and tied her hands tighter behind her back.

They then took her car keys and phone and threw them in the brush, she said.

The suspects took her debit card and diamond wedding ring, she told police.

After about 10 minutes, she walked out of the cornfield to the road and got help,” according to the statements.

Detectives reviewed surveillance footage and discovered the suspects had entered the Wal-Mart store before the kidnapping, Peters and Thomas said.

Detectives learned the suspects had used the woman’s debit card at a convenience store in Bloomsdale, Missouri. Surveillance video there provided a clear picture of the Suzuki, police said.

The investigation later found Smith is a close associate of Czarnecki.

Smith’s cellphone pinged near a tower where the victim’s vehicle was located in Scott County during the time the woman reported being dropped off in the area, police said.

Thomas said the woman identified Czarnecki in a photo lineup as the man with the knife.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641

Pertinent address:

3439 William St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Chaffee, Mo.