Family Members Rescue Kidnapped Woman, Kill Her Captor

A Louisiana kidnapping victim is safe at home after her family members rescued her and killed her captor.

Police say Scott Thomas, 29, of Leonville, abducted his former girlfriend, Bethany Arceneaux, 29, from a daycare center where she arrived to drop off their son on Wednesday, FOX News reports.

Police say Arceneaux exited her vehicle and was confronted by Thomas who forced her into his car and drove away, leaving their 2-year-old son behind.

Derrimetria Robinson told USA Today she was standing in the doorway of her home around 5:20 p.m. Wednesday when she saw a woman, Arceneaux, drive by honking her car horn.

She said she saw the driver park at the daycare center and run to the back passenger door of her car.

“She (Arceneaux) went to the passenger side to get her baby out, and when she was doing that a white Buick pulled up behind her. She started running, and he (the driver of the car) ran behind her and he attacked her, you know, while she was holding her baby,” Robinson said.

Robinson said she instinctively rushed over to save the baby.

“She (Arceneaux) was hollering and screaming for help,” Robinson said. “When I seen she had a baby, and I knew they were in trouble, it was like I knew I had to save that little baby.”

Robinson said she managed to grab the baby as the two people continued struggling. She said she kept the baby in her home until family members arrived for him later.

Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office spokesman Kip Judice told The Advertiser the massive search for Arceneaux and Thomas (pictured above) began almost immediately after the abduction.

Police deployed bloodhounds from Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, La., on Thursday as dozens of Arceneaux’s family members and friends joined the search.

According to The Advertiser, a group of men riding ATVs in a Lafayette neighborhood on Thursday heard a woman screaming inside an abandoned house. The men surrounded the house and forced their way inside.

Thomas, who was armed with a knife, began stabbing Arceneaux. One of the family members then shot Thomas.

Judice confirmed Friday that Thomas was dead.

He said no charges would be filed against the family members. “Family members were acting in defense of Bethany Arceneaux,” Judice said.

Arceneaux was taken to a local hospital where she was treated for multiple stab wounds and released on Sunday, Nov. 10.

Two of Arceneaux’s brothers, Ryan Arceneaux and Kaylyn Alfred, were among the men who forced their way into the house where Arceneaux was being held captive.

“We went and got her in that house. We kicked doors down. It was like a movie unfolding… if we wouldn’t have done what we did, she would have been dead,” Ryan Arceneaux said.

Arceneaux’s brother, Harold Carter added: “We did what we had to do. We did not wait for authorities. We did it our own self.”

Carter said that women, especially younger women, need to stop “getting back together” with abusive men.

He said his sister is an inspiration to other women in similar abusive situations.

Bethany Arceneaux filed a restraining order against Thomas on June 15 after he locked her in a house and threatened to kill both her and her son.

“He keeps threatening to kill us. He put a knife to my neck countless times,” she said in the report.

The protective order was approved on June 17. Thomas was arrested on August 8 for violating the protective order, FOX News reports. Scott was charged with aggravated assault and aggravated flight from an officer.

Carter said he felt “relieved, good, (and) happy that people came out and helped us.

“If it wasn’t for them and positive thinking, it could’ve turned out different.”