Gregg Abduction Not The First
WASHINGTON – Kathleen Gregg, the wife of New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg, yesterday became the second woman in slightly more than a week abducted from the Greggs’ posh, sleepy Washington suburb.
On Sept. 29, a 29-year-old woman and her two young children were snatched from a 7-Eleven parking lot about a mile from the Greggs’ McLean, Va., home.
The kidnapper – a white male similar in description, though apparently not in age, to the one described in yesterday’s assault – brandished a gun and forced the woman to drive to a nearby branch of Bank of America, according to Fairfax County, Va., police. He held one of the children hostage in the car while the mother and her other child went into the bank to withdraw an undisclosed amount of money.
The attacker then forced the woman to drive a short distance and let him out of the car. He ran off, leaving the woman and her children, ages three and five, unharmed.
Ms. Gregg was abducted by two men – one white, one black – armed with a knife, police said. One of the men used Ms. Gregg’s car to drive her to a branch of Wachovia bank, while the other followed in a Silver Buick LeSabre. The kidnappers fled in the Buick.
The bank Ms. Gregg was taken to is located at 1300 Chain Bridge Road. The man who kidnapped the mother and children last week got out of their car on exactly the same block.
“It’s definitely at the top of our minds that they might be related,” said Officer Courtney Young, spokeswoman for the Fairfax County Police Department. Fairfax police will re-interview witnesses to last week’s abduction to determine whether there could be a connection, she said.
The Greggs’ neighbors in one of Washington’s tonier suburbs expressed shock at the recent spate of violent crime.
“Nothing ever happens here,” said one neighbor, who asked that her name not be used. “I’ll be a little more careful, I think, make sure the locks are locked in my car.”
She added that the assault on Ms. Gregg was especially disturbing because “she’s pretty sharp, she’d be paying attention.”
“It’s a nice, safe neighborhood – the neighbors all know and like each other,” said another neighbor, who also spoke on condition of anonymity. The Greggs live far from the area’s main road, so their neighborhood rarely sees any commotion, the neighbor said.
Vien Hua, the manager of the 7-Eleven involved in last week’s attack, said nothing like it had happened before in his 10 years in McLean.
“This is a very good area,” he said.
