Woman Says She Wasn’t Abducted From SEPTA Bus Early Friday

Instances of kidnapping don’t tend to be subjective — debates don’t frequently arise over whether or not a person was abducted. So, when a woman was dragged off a SEPTA bus and thrown into the back of a vehicle in the early hours of Friday morning, authorities immediately began their investigation into what seemed like a textbook abduction.

They didn’t have to search for long, though. Around 9 a.m., a woman walked into the Northeast Detective Division purporting to be the woman seen in surveillance footage. She also said she had not been abducted, according to a police statement. Here’s what we know so far:

Just before 2 a.m. Friday morning, police responded to the 4200 block of E. Roosevelt Boulevard to a report of an abduction.

A woman had boarded the bus at the Frankford Terminal, and it was a short time later, when the bus arrived at the area of Pratt Street and Roosevelt Boulevard, that the driver “noticed that a silver car was following him and attempting to get him to pull over,” according to a police statement. 

She is described as being 20 years old, 5’7″, with a thin build and shoulder-length black hair with bangs, and wearing all dark clothing.

While the bus was halted at a red light, the commotion began. The driver of the silver vehicle got out of his car and approached the bus. Instead of attempting to board the bus, the man punched and shattered the bus’ glass window next to which the woman was seated while screaming for her to get off.

The light turned green, and the bus continued on, but eventually pulled over at 4200 Roosevelt Boulevard, at which point the woman asked to exit the bus.

“The male offender met the female at the front door, when the doors opened, he pulled her off of the bus, punched her twice in her head and dragged her to his vehicle,” the police statement said. “The offender then threw the complainant by her pants into the back seat of his vehicle and fled the area.” Sounds like an abduction, right? 

The car is described as silver four-door Pontiac, either a Grand Am or Grand Prix model, with a temporary paper Delaware license plate. The police statement describes the man as 25 years old, between 5’8″ and 5’10”, with a “thin build, short hair, clean shaven, red and black striped shirt.” 

Now, despite the woman supposedly turning herself in and clarifying the situation to authorities, some important questions remain. Is the woman who showed up at the detective division the same person from the SEPTA bus? And, if so, was she coerced into doing so?

A police investigation is ongoing to determine what actually occurred.

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