Three men have been arrested after they allegedly kidnapped a man in broad daylight, tied him to a tree in a rural ravine, beat him badly and left him for dead. Police found the man alive. His alleged assailants each face several felony charges.
“Our guys spent 24 hours on this case, and they saved this guy’s life,” Bloomington Police Department Capt. Steve Kellams said.
Shawn Arnett, 19, Jackie Johnson, 19, and Dylan Lutz, 20, are charged with kidnapping, aggravated battery, criminal confinement and burglary. Arnett and Johnson, who were detained from the same house in Gosport, Indiana, also face drug charges in Owen County.
The kidnapping of the 21-year-old man may have been motivated by drug debts, Kellams said.
At about 3:15 p.m. Tuesday, witnesses at the Arch Bloomington apartments at 703 W. Gourley Pike saw two men enter an apartment, drag a man from inside and force him into a green Ford Explorer, according to a BPD press release.
Multiple witnesses identified one of the men involved as Arnett. One witness, who lived in an apartment next to the victim, told police he could hear Arnett saying, “Where is my money?,” according to court records. He also identified Johnson, whom he said he knew from high school wrestling, and he and other witnesses said they heard loud banging sounds from the apartment.
Some officers involved were already familiar with drug problems in the area, Kellams said. According to court records, police found Arnett’s cell phone number in a police database and attempted to contact him. He refused to talk to police.
Police traced the number to a house on Orange Grove Road in Gosport, where they located Arnett and Johnson. BPD’s Critical Incident Response Team, and the Owen County Sheriff’s Department took them into custody.
Arnett told police he’d been at the apartment and argued with the victim, but the victim left the apartment through a sliding glass door in the back. Johnson said he and Lutz had picked Arnett up from the apartment.
Lutz, who police found at another residence in Gosport, told detectives Arnett and Johnson had carried the victim from the apartment. They first drove to a McDonalds in Ellettsville, he said, and Arnett yelled at the victim during the drive. Then they drove him to a rural part of Owen County.
There, he said, Arnett and Johnson pulled the victim from the SUV. Johnson also brought a handgun. Lutz told police the pair took the victim into the woods and returned alone.
Detectives began searching rural areas in Owen County. According to the press release, they feared the man was dead.
Johnson eventually confessed and told police the victim had been intoxicated during the kidnapping, according to court documents.. After they kidnapped him, the men drove to the Heatherwood Mobile Home Community, where Johnson submitted a residency application, and then to a McDonald’s in Spencer.
Johnson directed police to a field bordering woods off of Stone Mountain Road in Owen County, where he said Arnett and Lutz had taken the victim into the woods, according to court documents.
Police arrived at the location at about 4 p.m., more than 24 hours after the kidnapping, Kellams said. In the woods, the detective on scene first saw a series of items: bloodied clothes strewn on the ground, an orange extension cord tied to a tree. Then, around the other side of the tree, he saw a man on the ground.
The detective called out to the man. He did not respond. The detective approached him. He began to move.
The man was weak and had two swollen eyes, according to court documents. Blood was smeared across his face.
He was taken to Bloomington Hospital. His doctor there told police he had muscle deterioration from struggling against the cord. If the victim hadn’t gotten medical attention, the doctor said, his kidneys might have failed.
The victim told police he remembered being tied to a tree, but thinking it wasn’t real. When he tried to free himself, he couldn’t, and he fell asleep.
In a second interview, Lutz told police the victim owed Arnett $250 and Johnson an unnamed amount of money. At the apartment, Arnett kicked the victim in the head, and they took him to the woods with the plan to “beat his ‘ass,’” according to court documents.
Arnett and Johnson bound the victim to the tree, while Lutz brandished Johnson’s gun, he told police. The gun was unloaded, but he used it to intimidate the victim and eventually struck him with it. The men beat the victim until past the point of him losing consciousness. Arnett told the other men he would return later to untie the victim.
Officers who searched the Explorer found a Springfield XD40 handgun in its console. They also found a bloodied crowbar in its back side panel, as well as a blood-splattered orange Nike shoe box.
Lutz was taken to the Monroe County Correctional Center. His alleged accomplices are both in the Owen County Jail.
