Witness says he saw woman abducted from store, forced into car’s trunk

Three Coeur d’Alene residents are in jail suspected of kidnapping a woman from a Spokane supermarket, binding her with duct tape and beating her near Rathdrum.

The 25-year-old victim told police she was abducted from Broadway Foods in Spokane’s West Central Neighborhood on Wednesday and driven across the state line.

“She was able to flee after her captors left the area where she was being held,” the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

Several motorists along state Highway 53 and Hidden Valley Road stopped to help the woman, who was still bound with duct tape, until deputies arrived at about 7:30 p.m.

The victim was taken to Kootenai Health, where she was treated and released. Her name was not disclosed.

Angela M. Frisby, 37, Travis S. Anderson, 27, and Lilly M. Johnson, 19, were arrested and face first-degree kidnapping and aggravated battery charges.

Kangsan Lee, 22, was working at Broadway Foods, 2229 W. Broadway Ave., on Wednesday and witnessed the kidnapping, he said. Lee, a junior at Whitworth University, said his uncle owns the store and he was helping out.

Lee said a woman in her early to mid-40s came into the store around 5:30 p.m. and asked if he’d seen a red-haired woman. She told him the red-haired woman stole her son’s car. The woman showed Lee a photo of the red-haired woman, whom Lee recognized.

About 30 minutes later, Lee said, the red-haired woman came into the store and asked to use a phone. At that point, Lee said, the older woman came into the store, grabbed the red-haired woman from behind and dragged her outside.

“She was like, ‘Come here, you,’ ” Lee said.

Lee followed the two out and saw a four-door, red sedan parked in the lot. A man got out of the car, picked up the red-haired woman and pushed her inside the car’s trunk.

“He then told me, don’t worry about it, because they were going to take her to the police station,” Lee said.

Lee called the police. Shortly after, two officers came to the store. Lee said the red-haired woman left her purse and cellphone at the store. He gave those items to the police and told them what he’d seen.

Two days later, on Friday, Lee got a call from the woman asking if he still had her purse and cellphone. He told her he’d given them to the police and asked if she was OK.

“She said … they beat her up, they took her clothes off and they duct-taped her and they put her in some kind of room,” he said.

Deputies worked with Spokane police to identify a suspect and arrested Frisby, 37, at the Riverbend Inn in Post Falls. She was booked into the Kootenai County Jail on $150,000 bond.

Investigators obtained warrants for the other two suspects, Anderson and Johnson, and arrested them Thursday. Johnson is being held without bond, and Anderson has a bond of $150,000.

All three suspects face first-degree kidnapping and aggravated battery charges. Detectives have not commented on a possible motive.

Staff writer Scott Maben contributed to this report.