Deputy rescues woman trapped in car trunk

Lt. Tommy Butler was on his way home around 4 a.m. Sunday when he saw a car run through a stop sign at Sneads Grove and Old Wire roads.

He couldn’t ignore it, he said.

“Something just felt different about that one,” said Butler, who was exhausted after a long shift. “I immediately turned around and went after it.”

The red Hyundai Sonata was going about 85 mph, he said. Then, he clocked it at 115 mph.

When the car finally stopped, the driver got out and ran away.

Butler started to follow.

“That’s when I heard the screams coming from the trunk of the suspect’s vehicle,” he said.

Butler said a woman had been getting gas at a Kangaroo convenience store on South Main Street in Laurinburg when a pregnant woman approached her and asked for a ride.

The first woman agreed, but the pregnant woman’s boyfriend also got in the car, Butler said.

“They had her drive out into the county, and at such time, they put her in the trunk,” Butler said.

The suspects, Brandon McMillan, 27, and his girlfriend, Angela Crystal Hartley, were later arrested and charged with first-degree kidnapping, common-law robbery and larceny of a motor vehicle, according to police.

McMillan was also charged with failing to stop for a blue light and siren, fleeing to elude arrest, failing to stop at a stop sign, speeding, driving with a revoked license and resisting, delaying and obstructing an officer.

Hartley's bond was set at $50,000 bond and McMillan was given a $140,000 bond. 

Hartley is eight months pregnant.

Investigators say the couple stole the victim’s cell phone and $8 she had on her.

The victim was not injured. Her name is not being released because of safety reasons, investigators say.