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Ronald Epps
Greenville County Sheriff's Office
Ronald Epps

Suspect Charged In Kidnapping, Car Theft

Deputies: Witnesses, Surveillance Video Lead To Suspect

POSTED: 4:27 pm EST January 12, 2010
UPDATED: 8:38 am EST January 14, 2010

On Wednesday, a suspect named in a kidnapping and car theft that happened outside a convenience store early Monday morning turned himself in to authorities.

Ronald Epps went before a bond court judge Wednesday night. The judge denied bond on a kidnapping charge and set bond at $10,000 on a grand larceny charge.

Also: Caught On Camera: Car With Baby Inside Stolen

The baby's grandmother told Greenville County investigators that she had been driving the girl around to help put her to sleep and stopped at the Spinx gas station on South Pleasantburg Drive at 1:25 a.m. to get a cup of coffee.

The woman left the child in the 2006 Nissan Titan pickup truck with the engine running for about five minutes, deputies said. When she left the store, she saw her truck was gone.

The clerk had noticed a man who arrived at the store on a bicycle shortly before the pickup was stolen and was loitering around the store. Investigators believe the man left his bicycle behind and stole the pickup.

While deputies were talking to the grandmother, a parent of the child arrived at the store and gave deputies the child's personal information. As they were talking, investigators learned that the child had been dropped off at 428 Piedmont Highway.

The two people at the Piedmont residence said a man had come to the door with the girl in the car seat and told them he was with the sheriff's department and handed them the baby. He then fled again in the stolen vehicle.

EMS crews went to the residence and said the child was in good health and unharmed and the girl was returned to her parents.

The stolen pickup was recovered later Monday morning in a wooded area near a residence on Englewood Drive.

The resident, Virgie Ashmore, called the Sheriff's Office at 7:37 a.m. Monday to report that someone had left the stolen Nissan truck in the woods near his house and then stolen his 1992 Oldsmobile Cutlass from his driveway.

That car was later recovered.

On Tuesday, deputies said that witnesses and surveillance video helped them determine that 38-year-old Ronald Epps was the man who stole the truck with the baby inside. They said that warrants have been signed for his arrest, charging him with kidnapping and grand larceny.

Anyone with information on Epps's whereabouts was asked to call Greenville County Crime Stoppers at 23-CRIME.


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