A Chicago-area man lied about a flat tire when he kidnapped a Wisconsin woman in February, authorities said Monday.
Jonatan Luna-Carrasco, 28, of North Chicago, was arrested over the weekend after being linked to the Feb. 25 abduction, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said.
Authorities said Lake County 911 dispatchers received a call from a woman shortly after 2 a.m. on Feb. 25 reporting that her friend had been taken by an unknown man.
The woman and her 22-year-old friend from Whitewater, Wisconsin had just left a nightclub in Waukegan, Illinois when they were driving home. Luna-Carrasco pulled up in his vehicle beside them on U.S. Route 41 and said they had a flat tire, authorities said.
He allegedly said he would help them change the tire and they pulled over. He encouraged the kidnapped woman to stay warm inside his car, authorities said.
“After the victim entered Luna-Carrasco’s vehicle, he fled with her against her will,” the sheriff’s office said. “The victim was able to jump out of the car in the 3500 block of Highland Avenue, Gurnee, and run to a home to ask for help.”
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The Gurnee Police Department responded and helped the victim until sheriff’s deputies arrived.
Investigators believe Luna-Carrasco was attempting to take the woman to an unknown location. While it’s not clear what he intended to do, he allegedly made sexually suggestive comments after taking her.
Detectives used Flock camera technology, which reads license plates and sends alerts to law enforcement, and found Luna-Carrasco’s gray Dodge Durango.
He was arrested on March 30 in Waukegan and is being held in the Lake County Jail pending a Monday court hearing.
“This is another example of excellent police work by everyone involved, from our sheriff’s telecommunicators to our deputies who responded, to our detectives who put in an extensive amount of investigative work,” Lake County Sheriff John Idleburg said. “Additionally, we were able to leverage Flock camera technology to help us further our investigation, which played a large role in identifying the offender in this case.”
Investigators believe Luna-Carrasco has committed additional kidnappings in the past.