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

DATE: MONDAY, October 9, 1995                   TAG: 9510090147
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: MADISON HEIGHTS                                LENGTH: Short

ABDUCTED WOMAN, 86, FREES HERSELF

Police are looking for the man who abducted her about 1:30 p.m. Saturday from a parking lot at Towers Shopping Center in Roanoke, Virginia State Police Sgt. Bob Stout said Sunday.

He declined to identify the woman, who suffered some bruises to her hands when she was tied up but was otherwise uninjured.

``She kept her wits about her,'' Stout said.

Police said a man came up behind her in the mall parking lot, forced her into the car, and made her lie on the floor. The man was armed with a small-caliber pistol, police said.

He drove around awhile, eventually stopping about 4:45 p.m. Saturday on Virginia 622 in Madison Heights, in Amherst County.

Stout said the man took the woman out of the car and into some nearby woods. He then placed the woman on the ground and tied her with rope.

After about three hours, the woman was able to free herself and walk back to the road.

The woman was not robbed, and Stout said police are not sure of the motive for the crime, other than car theft. Her car had not been found Sunday.

- Associated Press