5 charged with kidnapping, torturing pregnant woman in New Castle

State police have charged five people with kidnapping and torturing a pregnant woman in Lawrence County in an attempt to find missing money.

The captors allegedly duct taped the victim’s legs together, gagged her with duct tape, injured her toe with a clamp, hit her feet with a hammer and beat her hips and legs with a piece of wood, according to court documents.

She was 10 weeks pregnant, according to police.

The woman and an acquaintance had visited a home on Sunny Avenue in New Castle on Jan. 4, police reported.

The next day, the woman’s acquaintance got a call, saying a bag containing $14,000 was missing from the house.

The pair returned to the home, where they were accused of taking the money. The residents said the two were not allowed to leave until the money was found, police reported.

Later, the woman’s acquaintance asked if he could go out to buy cigarettes. The captors agreed, on the condition that the woman stayed behind, according to police. He left and never returned.

The woman’s captors then bound her. Two of them, who police said she knew as “Unc” and “Zeke,” began torturing her.

Police identified “Unc” as Eddie James Johnson III, 45, of Detroit, and “Zeke” as Isaac Bohand Anderson, 32, of New Castle.

When her captors removed the gag, the woman told them her acquaintance had the money, police reported.

They told her if she tried to contact police, they would harm her family, police said.

Accused captors Anthony David Michael, 25, and Samantha Charlene King, 23, both of New Castle, and Jason Tyrone Bowdry, 35, of Cleveland, loaded the woman into an SUV, intending to go to her acquaintance’s home in West Virginia, police reported. The woman texted a friend, who contacted police.

Police found the SUV at a Sunoco station in South Fayette Township, Allegheny County, where Michael, King and Bowdry were arrested. Police arrested Johnson and Anderson later that day.

Police found suspected heroin, cocaine, pills, cash and marijuana when searching the Sunny Avenue residence.

The five suspects are charged with kidnapping, conspiracy to inflict injury or terror, unlawful constraint and false imprisonment.

Johnson, Anderson and Bowdry are additionally charged with manufacture, delivery or possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance; aggravated assault; possession of a controlled substance; terroristic threats; simple assault; recklessly endangering another person; and harassment

Each is being held in the Lawrence County Jail on $250,000 cash bail.

Preliminary hearings are scheduled for Jan. 16.

Jacob Tierney is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jacob at 724-836-6646, jtierney@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Soolseem.