Local News in Brief : Student Flees Abductors
A theology student working for Santa Monica Mayor James Conn escaped unharmed early Wednesday after two gunmen abducted her briefly during a robbery spree, police said.
Jennifer Cibelli, 39, was able to flee when her captors saw police, panicked, and crashed their stolen car into a Venice canal.
Police using dogs and a helicopter searched the Venice-Santa Monica area but failed to find the men, who fled on foot.
Cibelli was returning home just before midnight Tuesday when the two men, who had just committed three street robberies near Hollywood, stopped her and forced her inside their car, police said. They took her money and an automatic bank teller card and began driving to her bank before she managed to escape, Conn said.
Cibelli is studying to become a Presbyterian minister and has worked for Conn, a Methodist minister, at his Santa Monica church since September.
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