April 20, 2001
(MIAMI) -- A young woman may owe her life to a persistent police officer who decided to investigate when he found a driver acting suspiciously.
Officer Ray Haar of the Miami-Dade County department called for backup after he saw businessman Michael Scott Segal stop his car on the edge of a lake, its wheels hanging over a bank. Officer Rhonda McCoy, who responded, noticed a hand sticking through the back seat cushions.
Haar and McCoy found Tanya Batista, 29, locked in the trunk. They say that Batista was bruised and had marks from choking or strangulation on her neck. Segal has been charged with attempted murder and kidnapping. Investigators believe that he and Batista, an employee, had been having an affair and that they had been arguing Thursday morning at the home Segal and his wife share in Coconut Grove. Segal allegedly placed the unconscious woman in the trunk of her own car, eventually driving it to the lake where he was arrested in the afternoon.