Federal and local authorities are looking for a couple and an unidentified man after a man was found dead in metro Atlanta and a woman was kidnapped in another state, police said.
John Czarnecki is accused of killing his neighbor, then using that same neighbor’s SUV in a violent kidnapping of a Walmart employee Thursday in Cape Girardeau, Mo., about 115 miles southeast of St. Louis, Chamblee police Capt. Ernesto Ford said Friday.
Police had no idea a man was dead in an apartment in the 2100 block of Dresden Drive when the FBI asked them to assist with an investigation into the kidnapping.
And they did not initially know Czarnecki and the unidentified man were suspects in the abduction.
"They took her," Ford said. "They bound her."
The men used the woman’s credit cards, and that’s how authorities got surveillance of the SUV used in the kidnapping, police said.
Surveillance showed a Suzuki Grand Vitara registered to Abraham Rudolph Jacobs of the Dresden Drive address. Chamblee police went to Jacobs’ apartment about 8:20 p.m. Thursday but could not find him, Ford said.
FBI “agents had reason to believe that Jacobs’ vehicle was stolen and that he may be a victim as well,” according to Ford.
As officers checked on Jacobs, the FBI learned Czarnecki — Jacobs’ neighbor — had been identified as one of the suspects in the kidnapping. When officers could not reach Czarnecki, a warrant was obtained to search his apartment. Jacobs’ body was inside, Ford said. Police are investigating the death as a homicide. It was not clear Friday afternoon how long Jacobs had been dead or how he died.
Czarnecki has not been charged in connection with Jacobs’s death.
“However, warrants will be obtained charging him with the theft of Jacobs’ vehicle and he is currently wanted by the U.S. Marshal Service on an outstanding probation violation warrant,” Ford said.
Czarnecki was last known to be driving the Suzuki with North Carolina tag EFK 7387. Officials said they are concerned about the safety of Czarnecki’s girlfriend, who lives in Brookhaven and has not been found. Sally Noe McIntyre may be in danger, officials said.
Anyone with information about their whereabouts is asked to call Chamblee police at 770-986-5005 or 470-395-2413.
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