A woman in Pennsylvania agreed to get into a car with someone she knew, then described being taken away against her will. The police account reported by WPXI centers on an encounter with 46-year-old Marcus Render.
She knew him from one previous date, and the encounter began at her home in Crawford Village.
The encounter happened Sunday, October 11. Render drove up and said he wanted to show her something, an invitation that brought her into the vehicle.
Once she was inside, she told police he sped away with her in the car. Her account of the ride and what happened at a store in White Oak became the basis of a kidnapping case.
Inside the Car
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The woman said Render grabbed her leg and told her she was going to have sex with him. When she refused, he responded that she had no choice.
At the White Oak Dollar Tree, he told her she was not allowed to leave the car. Once he went inside the store, she jumped out and approached an employee, asking them to forget they had seen her before hiding behind the building.
The employee called police because the woman seemed to be in danger. By the time officers arrived, Render was gone, but messages on her phone offered his explanation for what had happened.
In those texts, he said he was “just joking” and would have stopped if he had known she was scared. Police later arrested him at his home.
The Next Date
The court docket lists kidnapping as a first-degree felony, terroristic threats as a first-degree misdemeanor, and false imprisonment as a second-degree misdemeanor. White Oak Borough Police arrested Render on October 11, and the criminal complaint was filed the following day.
Bail was denied October 12 on the recorded ground that he posed a threat to the victim, a witness, or the community. A confinement entry places him in Allegheny County Jail beginning that day.
As of the docket printed October 13, the case remained active and awaiting a preliminary hearing. That hearing is scheduled for October 26 at 1:30 p.m. before Magisterial District Judge Thomas Miller Jr.
All parties are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.