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Kingwood man accused of kidnapping woman

KINGWOOD — A Kingwood man is being held without bond on a kidnapping charge.

Delbert Casto Wagner, 24, was arraigned Thursday on a felony charge of kidnapping after allegedly getting into a woman’s car uninvited and forcing her at knife point to drive him around.

According to a criminal complaint by Preston Sheriff’s Cpl. W.T. McNair, a woman called Kingwood Officer G.M. McNemar. The caller hid the phone by her leg. Officer McNemar could hear the victim screaming and crying. The victim was able to let the officer know where she was at.

Deputy McNair, who had been dispatched to a domestic call alongside W.Va. 26, found the car with the victim and Wagner on Ken Snyder Road.

The victim said Wagner had gotten into her vehicle at a Kingwood convenience store and would not get out.

“He told her where to drive and had pulled out a pocket knife and put it to her side, telling her he would kill her if she didn’t drive,” according to the complaint.

Wagner told the woman to drive to Atlantic Road in Tunnelton. He threw the knife out along the road, according to the victim. State Police Senior Trooper L.S. Hall found a pocket knife by the water treatment plant on Atlantic Road.

The woman said she stopped the car on W.Va. 26, got out, flagged down a car and asked the occupants to call 911. They did so, resulting in McNair’s original call out. When she got out of the car, Wagner put one arm around her throat and the other around her body, and forced her back into her car, the woman said.

He forced her to drive to Ken Snyder Road, where Wagner appeared to be preparing to jump from the car. This is when the woman was able to call Officer McNemar. When she pulled into a driveway and Wagner got out of the car, the victim locked him out.

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