Kidnap Victim Dies of Injuries Suffered in Crash

Chris Rawlings, a well-to-do businessman who was dragged from his Woodland Hills garage by two masked gunmen and forced into the trunk of his Bentley, died Wednesday night, apparently of injuries suffered when the kidnappers crashed the car.

Rawlings, 30, died at Northridge Hospital Medical Center at 6:01 p.m., police said.

The cause of death will be determined by an autopsy, the coroner’s office said. But Rawlings suffered major head injuries in the crash and had been unconscious since then, family friends said earlier.

He left a wife and two children.

The kidnapping occurred Monday night when Rawlings was returning home. His wife heard her husband’s Bentley drive into the garage. She said she entered the garage to find two men beating her husband.

She fled upstairs with her children and called police.

The men forced Rawlings into the trunk, then drove the vehicle away just as officers arrived. Police chased the Bentley until it struck a power pole near the Ventura Freeway in Tarzana, ejecting Rawlings from the trunk. The kidnappers escaped.