The Kidnapper's Wife

27. During

Reporting Officer Narrative

Deep Creek Police Department Officer ID: 7482941

Victim: HARRIS, ANNA MELODY Offense: SUSPICIOUS VEHICLE

Date/Time Reported: Wednes. 10/5/2016 10:37am

A non-emergency call was received by the Frederick County Sheriff's Office at 8:43am. The caller reported seeing a red BMW convertible at a junkyard a few miles outside the city of Deep Creek. The caller thought it was odd, and then saw the amber alert for a similar car on her phone, and decided to call it in.

I called the Frederick Sheriff's Department to be briefed on the case before I came to take a look. They said they'd send someone up immediately to check it out, but advised me to go secure the car and collect evidence first since it would be a few hours before they'd be able to arrive.

I radioed the forensics team to meet me at the site, and headed over to the location the non-emergency caller had specified. When I pulled up to the junkyard, I immediately saw the red convertible. It was parked back from the road, but could still be seen from the road. Before approaching the car, I approached the main office to question the owner.

The owner was Mr. Fred Coston. He stated that he had owned the junkyard for fifteen years. He then stated the following narrative.

Fred Coston's signed statement: I was working the front desk yesterday around 9am when a young girl pulled up in the red convertible. She approached the office and she told me that her name was Christine, and that she was on the run from an abusive ex-boyfriend. She told me that he would be coming after her, and that she was going to ask me for a strange request. I said okay. She asked me what the most expensive car was in the lot. I started telling her which one, but she said she didn't want to know which one, she wanted to know how much the most expensive car on the lot cost. I told her twenty thousand dollars. She told me that the convertible was worth multiple times that much. She said she wanted to exchange it for another car on the lot, so her boyfriend wouldn't recognize her car. I started making suggestions, but she said she wanted me to give her the box of keys, and she wanted to choose one without me knowing which one and to take it without me knowing which one she took. I told her that would be alright. I gave her the box and she took a key, I didn't see which one. I figured it was just her, she couldn't drive more than one car herself, so even if she took more than one key, it wouldn't help her, and I mostly sell parts anyway. She took the key outside but she came back in, saying there were too many cars and she didn't know which one she'd picked. I told her my general system of organization, the running cars in the back of the lot, near the back exit, away from the road, the broken cars up near the front. Then I told her they were generally ordered by year. Each key had the year, make and model of the car tagged on it. This time when she went out, she came back in and said the car she'd picked was broken. It took a few rounds before she got one that worked. I didn't see which one, I was too busy investigating the convertible to pay her much attention, and she left out the back way. No boyfriend ever came looking for her, no one did until you now.

I asked Mr. Coston if he had found it suspicious or odd, the girls behavior. He said he thought it was strange, but that he got many strange sorts around the junkyard and had learned to just go with it. He also stated that he had a high degree of interest in acquiring the convertible, and would have done almost anything to get it for, essentially, free.

I showed Mr. Coston a photo of Anna Harris and he made a positive id. He stated that when she came in, she had not altered her appearance in any substantial way. He claims to have seen no sign of any other person with her.

I asked Mr. Coston how much interaction he had with the car up to this point. He said he had gone on a drive in it yesterday, after receiving it, mostly on back roads. He said he hadn't done much more than that, he had been planning on detailing it this morning.

I advised Mr. Coston that more officers would be on the scene shortly and they would likely have more questions, but that the BMW was the subject of a kidnapping investigation and we would be taking possession of the car. Mr. Coston gave me the keys, and I went to begin an initial inspection. I took the below notes before the forensics team arrived on the scene.

The car was dirty, with a thick layer of grime, dirt, and mud, particularly on the part of the car that was close to the road. The top on the car was down, and there were a good number of leaves on the interior. The inside of the car appeared clean, with no trash, or belongings of any kind. There was a layer of dust covering the dashboard and the windshield was relatively dirty. The only visible object I could see in the car was a book of maps, in the backseat pocket.

The interior of the car was a beige leather. The floor mats matched the seats. On the back right floor mat, was a large rust-colored stain.

Officer Joshua Marrow