Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 15, 1994                   TAG: 9404150094
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BOY REPORTS ABDUCTION, MOLESTATION

The boy reported the incident to a Botetourt County sheriff's deputy immediately after it occurred in the parking lot of Mountain View Mall in Troutville the night of March 30.

The boy had gone to Valley View Mall in Roanoke to buy a pair of tennis shoes, according to police reports. As he walked across the Hechinger's parking lot about 6:45 p.m., a man drove up, identified himself as "Officer Brown" and said he wanted to question the boy about a shooting incident.

The man asked the boy to get into his car. The youth requested identification from the man, who then grabbed him by the arm. The boy broke free and ran into Hechinger's, where he asked another man to help him.

The three were observed by Hechinger's security. Hechinger's employees who witnessed the incident would not comment late Thursday.

At the store's service desk, the boy called his mother. The man took the telephone from the boy and told the boy's mother that he was going to take her son "downtown" to question him. The man then told the boy that he was going to take him to his mother, police said.

The victim told police that he went to the bathroom, hoping the suspect would leave. When he left, the man appeared and took the boy to his car.

The man locked the doors of the car, which the victim described as a brown, four-door vehicle. The man then drove to the parking lot of Mountain View Mall, where the sexual encounter took place.

After the assault, the victim fled from the car, taking his newly purchased tennis shoes. He alerted the sheriff's deputy at about 7:50 p.m.

The Botetourt County Sheriff's Office and police from the Roanoke Youth Bureau continue to investigate the incident.

The Fincastle Herald reported this week that the abduction was linked to other reports of women being fondled at Valley View. Roanoke police, however, say there have been no reports of sexual assaults at the mall.

Valley View Mall's manager agreed. "As far as we know, there is zero truth that women have been fondled or sexually assaulted at Valley View Mall, other than someone saying, 'Hey, good looking,'" said the mall's general manager, Michael Thornton.