VERO BEACH — A Vero Beach woman is safe Sunday morning and her next-door neighbor is in police custody after he kidnapped the woman from her home at gunpoint, according to Vero Beach Police.
Authorities say Leon Dennis Thurston has admitted to entering his neighbor’s home and taking a woman and holding her against her will in a Vero Beach park, but he said he had no intent to harm her.
At about 5:40 a.m., police say Thurston, a white male in his early 60s, walked into the home through an unlocked door with a .22 caliber gun in one hand and a club in the other.
According to police, Thurston proceeded to beat the woman’s husband and then told the woman to get dressed and come with him.
The husband then called police to report the crime.
A statement released Sunday by the Vero Beach Police identified the victims as Jessica and David Scoville.
“Upon arrival Officers spoke to David Scoville who explained that he has just been assaulted by his neighbor who resides at 2210 15th Place whom he knows as ‘Leo’. As Scoville further explained what took place a few minutes prior to the Officers arrival, they learned that Scoville and his wife, Jessica, had been sitting inside their laundry room area that backs onto the rear porch of the residence. The door to this room was open and that they were smoking cigarettes. David explained that as they were conversing, Leo appeared in the doorway and told them they were being loud,” said Lt. Matt Harrelson, who heads up Vero’s Detective Division.
The release states Jessica Scoville said she was “in fear of her life and that she went with him so that he wouldn’t hurt her or David any further. She explained that Leo is known to her from several previous benign neighborhood encounters but he has not ever been threatening or violent in the past.”
Scoville, who is in her early 30s, was led at gunpoint to nearby Charles Park and taken to the area of the park that has running trails.
Meanwhile, police had set up a perimeter in the area of the 2200 block of 15th Lane where the woman was taken, and a K-9 team was used to track the woman in the direction of the park.
Scoville said she told Thurston she needed to use the restroom and he walked her up near the front of the park to use the facilities. It was there that she saw Vero Beach Police Department vehicles staged at the front of the park and flagged down an officer.
When she exited the restroom and Thurston went in to use the restroom himself, Scoville ran to police, who surrounded the restroom.
Both the night shift, which was scheduled to leave at 6 a.m. and the day shift which was coming on to relieve them, was involved in the case.
According to Corporal Darrell Rivers, of the Vero Beach Police Department, who was the day-shift supervisor on duty, the man got down on the ground and surrendered without incident. He was in custody at 7:36 a.m.
It was not immediately apparent that Thurston has any prior offenses locally, and he is not a registered sex offender. He was, however, accused the day before in a suspicious incident by another neighbor of removing part of her swimsuit from an outdoor clothesline.
The suspect was taken to the Vero Beach Police Department for processing, and both victims were interviewed by Detectives. A victims advocate from the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office was called in to assist with this case.
The release states, “(Thurston) readily admitted to walking inside the Scoville residence brandishing a firearm and taking Jessica out of the residence against her will. He advised that he did have a ‘tire thumper’ but he did not hit David with it; he described elbowing David back away from him as he grabbed Jessica’s wrist and led her out.”
“He stated that he walked around with her and spoke to her to ‘blow off some steam.’ He advised he was not going to hurt her or do anything ‘inappropriate’ to her he just wanted to talk with her. He advised that he did not allow her to leave because he wasn’t done talking with her,” Harrelson wrote in the police report.
Based upon the investigation so far, Thurston is facing charges armed burglary, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, kidnapping, false imprisonment and carrying a concealed firearm.
Thurston is being held without bond, according to authorities. There was also a no contact order issued for him to stay way from the victims of the case.