DUDLEY, MASS. (WHDH) - Two people facing kidnapping and robbery charges have been held without bail after they allegedly threatened a woman with a gun and forced her to drive them around Dudley and Webster for an hour on Tuesday night.
Jessie Thibodeau, 44, and Nichole Murphy, 31, both of Dudley, were arraigned Wednesday in Dudley District Court on charges including armed robbery, assault, and battery with a dangerous weapon, kidnapping, and larceny from a person.
A woman went to the Webster Police Department around 8 p.m. to report that a man and woman had just held her against her will inside of her vehicle, according to the Dudley Police Department.
Thibodeau and Murphy uallegedly approached the victim in her car in the parking lot of the Dollar General Store on West Main Street and asked if they could smoke inside of her vehicle to get out of the cold because they were homeless.
She allowed them into her car, where Thibodeau told her he had a gun and that he had it to the back of her head, the victim told Dudley police.
The suspects told the woman that they wanted money and allegedly made her drive them around Webster for about an hour.
They also demanded that she contact anyone who would give her money, the victim told the police.
She dropped them off at The Walsh Tub Laundromat on Oxford Avenue in Dudley upon their alleged instruction.
The victim reported that Thibodeau and Murphy stole her license, cellphone and $20.
Officers responding to the incident reviewed surveillance video of the area that reportedly showed a man who matched the description provided by the victim.
During this time, a second person reported that a man and a woman approached her vehicle at the Dollar General Store parking lot shortly before they got into the victim’s car, police said.
Officers in the area of the laundromat noticed fresh footprints in the snow that went to a residence on Green Street, but no one responded at the door.
Dudley police applied for and were granted a search warrant for the home, where Thibodeau and Murphy were arrested around 1 a.m., according to police.
Evidence was reportedly recovered in connection with the earlier incident.
Thibodeau was also arrested on an outstanding warrant.
Thibodeau and Murphy are due back in court at a later date.
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