BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. — A Berkeley Springs man is behind bars after the Morgan County Sheriff and a deputy rescued the man’s girlfriend from a home in Berkeley Springs.
Sheriff KC Bohrer says the incident happened Monday afternoon when a passerby notified police about the possible abduction of a female on Tabor Road.
The caller gave police the tag number of the vehicle involved and about an hour later, Bohrer and Deputy Hedrick went to the Tabor Road home and spoke to 36-year-old Kenneth Eugene Merchant II.
Merchant told police there had been an incident with his girlfriend earlier, but he had taken her to her parents’ home uninjured.
Merchant refused to let the officers in the home, but Sheriff Bohrer went inside the residence and found the female victim with visible injuries to her face.
Merchant tried to flee the officers but was apprehended.
He now faces a charge of kidnapping and may face charges including domestic battery and assaulting an officer.
He is being held at the Eastern Regional Jail without bond.