Woman Manages To Escape Kidnapper After He Broke Into Home, Shut Off Electricity

A Michigan woman escaped her kidnapper after telling him she needed to fill her tire with air, according to authorities.

Ionia County Central Dispatch said they received a call around 10:30 a.m. on Monday from a woman who said her neighbor texted her the word “HELP.” The neighbor told authorities the woman had been having domestic issues with her ex-boyfriend, according to police.

The suspect, later identified as 52-year-old Kurt Gene Franklyn, rented a van and drove to the victim’s house. Franklyn then “watched [the suspect] leave to drop her children off at to school.”

“After she left, he entered her house and waited for her to return and switched off the main power breaker,” police said. “When the female victim returned home after dropping her children off, she went to investigate why the electricity was off and that’s when she was attacked by the suspect.”

Kurt Gene Franklyn is charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct, first-degree home invasion, unlawful imprisonment and domestic assault. https://t.co/REN5HmZmBA

— Lansing State Journal (@LSJNews) November 2, 2022

Police say the victim managed to keep Franklyn calm for several hours and “convince him to go with her to retrieve property out of his personal vehicle which was parked south of Ionia. She then reportedly manage “to escape with the statement that she needed air in her tires,” according to police.

The victim pulled into a gas station and ran into the station screaming for help, telling the clerk she had been kidnapped and raped, police said. (RELATED: Washington Woman Escapes Would-Be Grave After Being Stabbed, Bound, Buried Alive By Husband: Police)

Franklyn reportedly had “binoculars, knives, and restraints on his person, as well as a can of pepper spray.”

Franklyn has been charged with first degree criminal sexual conduct, home invasion in the first degree, unlawful imprisonment and domestic assault.