Kidnapping Suspect Jumps in Front of Train, Is Killed

A day after a Laguna Hills man reportedly stabbed his estranged girlfriend during a botched kidnapping, the distraught 31-year-old killed himself by lying down in the path of a train, police said Sunday.

Bryon Watt Jennings waited Saturday afternoon for the train at mile marker No. 254 on the Coaster Line in the University City area of San Diego, then jumped on the tracks about 5:20 p.m., witnesses told police. In a stolen car parked nearby, police discovered a suicide note.

“He was involved with a married woman whose husband was overseas,” San Diego County Sheriff’s Deputy Ed Augustine said. “They had apparently been involved in a secret romance for the past two years and were discovered by the [woman’s] brother.”

The woman, who was not identified, chose to end the relationship, a decision that was followed by Jenning’s attack on Friday. Jennings broke through a glass door of an Encinitas optometry office where the woman worked, and attempted to kidnap her and steal her car, Augustine said.

Before Jennings could drive off in her car, the woman managed to escape out the passenger side. But before she got away, Jennings stabbed her in the arm with a knife, authorities said. The woman, who lives at Camp Pendleton, was later treated and released from Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas.

In the suicide note, Jennings apologized for the stabbing and said he had been in love with the woman since they first met, Augustine said.

Wire services contributed to this report.