Media

Missing Minister Tells Sheriff’s Detectives He Was Kidnapped and Robbed

Release Date: July 22, 2005

A minister of a Raleigh church contacted his family early today to say that he is safe and at his sister’s house in Bakersfield California. He says he was kidnapped and carjacked in South-East Memphis last weekend.

Shelby County Sheriff’s Deputies have had a nation-wide search underway to locate Richard Grant of Cordova. Grant, who pastors the Abundant Living Church on East Street, had been missing since this past Friday, July 15, 2005.

Grant told his family that just after leaving a job interview Friday afternoon he stopped at the American Savings Credit Union on Ridgeway Road to get some money from the teller machine. As he was leaving the credit union, he says four men forced their way into his grey Ford van and made him make another withdrawal of cash. The men then made him drive to the Hollywood Casino in Tunica where more cash was withdrawn from a teller machine inside the casino.

From Tunica the men drove to Shreveport, Louisiana where other ATM withdrawals were made. The men then traveled through several other states. Grant said he was forced out of his van early yesterday morning near a rest area in Seligman, Arizona, which is about 70 west of Flagstaff. Grant said he then hitched a ride with a truck driver who took him to his sister’s house in Bakersfield, California last evening.

Sheriff’s detectives were able to interview Grant by phone this morning. Both the Sheriff’s Office and Bakersfield Police Department are investigating. Although Grant said he was threatened during his captivity, he was not hurt by his attackers.

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