Cellular Lifeline Leads to Kidnap Victim’s Rescue

Using her cellular phone as a lifeline from inside her car trunk, an Encino woman who had been kidnapped on her way home from church Saturday night made a call that led to her rescue outside a Nevada casino on Sunday, police said.

After untying herself, she used the phone for hours to call her husband and stay in contact with police.

Laura Dekkers, 44, was discovered inside the trunk of her convertible BMW in a parking garage next to Whiskey Pete’s Casino in Primm, Nev., across the California state line, Los Angeles police spokesman Eddy Zelayo said.

In shock and severely dehydrated, she was flown to the University of Nevada Las Vegas Hospital, where nurses said she was in serious condition Sunday night.

Police said late Sunday that many questions about the incident remain unanswered.

They said her abductor, described as a thin white man, about 5-foot-7, remained at large late Sunday. He was wearing a dark ski mask and carrying a duffel bag when he first approached her, Zelayo said.

Police and church officials said Dekkers was kidnapped about 7:30 p.m. while walking toward her car in a parking lot near the Bel Air Presbyterian Church, where she had been teaching a children’s Bible study class.

Dekkers, a stockbroker, had been teaching the class for 15 children while an evening service for adults was underway nearby, said Tim Lee, director of the church’s singles ministries program.

A gunman forced Dekkers to drive to a spot she did not recognize before tying her up and shoving her inside the trunk, she told authorities.

She had been missing for about 12 hours before she untied herself and called her husband, about 7:25 a.m. Sunday from the inside of her trunk, using the cellular phone, Zelayo said.

With the car engine humming in the background, Dekkers described to her horrified husband and--later--police how the kidnapper approached her on a dimly lighted slope outside the church. After she talked to her husband, he called police; meantime, she also began dialing 911.

For the next few hours, she kept in regular contact with the California Highway Patrol’s 911 operators, Zelayo said.

Beginning about 10 a.m. Sunday, her calls were being routed through the CHP’s Barstow office, leading police to believe her car was in that area.

LAPD, meanwhile, put out an all-points bulletin.

About 2 p.m., a Whiskey Pete’s security guard discovered the BMW convertible on the fifth floor of the casino parking garage, Zelayo said. Authorities had to break open the lock to get her out, police said.

The motive for the crime is unknown, police said.

Her husband, Henk Dekkers, said Sunday night that he was relieved his wife had been found.

“I’m much better now,” Dekker said. “It was definitely a trying day.”