The United States District Court has released new details about a Jacksonville truck driver who may have kidnapped a brother and sister and bound them with zip ties and duct-tape.
Marshall Pendergrass, 47, is facing federal kidnapping charges after police in Arizona said he kidnapped a girl, 14, and her brother, 12.
The complaint states that on March 17 Pendergrass was believed to be at a Flying J in Arizona. He was located with the two children, who were inside the cab of his semi-truck.
The children told police that they had been bound with zip-ties and duct-tape.
During an interview, the boy stated that he had wanted an iPhone since December and was in contact with Pendergrass about getting one. The boy says he was under the impression that they were both going to Metro PCS to buy the phones.
The boy says that Pendergrass later picked up the boy's 14-year-old sister at a friends house. They kept driving for a while until the kids eventually asked for him to take them home. Pendergrass told them his GPS was broken and not to pay attention to it.
The boy said Pendergrass told them that there was bad news and they weren't going home but they were going with him to Nevada. The boy then said that Pendergrass put zip-ties on them and put duct tape on both of their legs.
Pendergrass, on the other hand, told police that he traveled to meet the kids after the boy was messaging him to "come hang out." He had not seen the kids since last summer. The boy told Pendergrass that he wanted a "ride."
Pendergrass says he met with the boy at a truck stop in Texas and told police he was taking the kids to Walmart to get some snacks.
Pendergrass says that he planned on returning to where he had picked them up but "they talked [him] into letting them ride with him to Sparks, Nevada."
He admitted later that this was his mistake.
Additionally, Pendergrass told police that the two kids were playing with each other and putting "tie straps" on each other. He says the kids were putting them on each other to see how tight they could get them and then cutting them off.
Based upon the information from the interviews, the FBI deemed that there was enough probable cause to believe that Pendergrass committed a violation of federal law, specifically, kidnapping.