2 Arrested in Kidnappings and Carjackings in California, Nevada

Two of three people suspected in a string of kidnappings, including the abduction of a woman found wandering in a Laguna Beach park last month, were arrested in Los Angeles after leading police on a chase through the city, authorities said Thursday.

Todd Williams, 36, and Lisa Johnson, 32, suspects in several assaults and carjackings from San Francisco to Las Vegas, were arrested after Williams led police on a pursuit from Hollywood to Westlake near downtown, said Officer Jason Lee, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department.

The three are believed to be responsible for recent attacks against women in Nevada and California. In separate incidents, three women were abducted, with the attackers beating them and taking their cars and bank cards, officials said.

A break in the case came near Beverly Boulevard and Kingsley Drive about 2 p.m. Wednesday.

“The officers saw a car that they suspected. They ran the license plates and it came back with different information than the vehicle it was on,” said LAPD Sgt. Blaine Blackstone.

When officers tried to stop the gray Honda with a license plate registered to a Pontiac, the driver sped away. The chase ended when the car crashed into two other vehicles and hit a utility pole.

Williams, the driver, was seriously injured and was taken to the hospital jail ward at County-USC Medical Center, where he remained in custody Thursday.

The Honda he was driving belongs to a woman who had been kidnapped earlier.

Police found Johnson several hours later, allegedly burglarizing a car. She was taken into custody, officials said.

A third suspect, Joseph O’Neal, was still at large, police said.

Police were investigating whether the trio was responsible for the Nov. 17 abduction of Alice Tennyson, 58, who told police she was grabbed by two men at her office parking lot in San Francisco. She was found dazed and disoriented in Laguna Beach, where she told authorities she had been bound with duct tape to a park bench but managed to free herself.

The trio are linked most recently to an attack in Baker on Nov. 24, authorities said. Three people allegedly stopped to help a woman with a flat tire, but then robbed her at gunpoint, tied her up and broke her jaw.

Three days earlier, a 36-year-old San Marcos woman was carjacked, pistol-whipped and robbed of $5 at a Denny’s parking lot in Escondido. She too was bound with duct tape and thrown into the back seat of her car. She was eventually released because she didn’t have a bank card, police said.