By Steve Stone, Cindy Clayton, and Lauren King
The Virginian-Pilot
Ahoskie, N.C. — Police have charged a Kitty Hawk police officer in connection with the case of a 33-year-old man who was reported to be abducted as he left his home Thursday.
Police Chief Troy Fitzhugh said that Raymond Christian Jedele, 38, is being held on a $10 million bond on a first-degree kidnapping charge.
Jedele, of the 100 block of Colony Lane in Kill Devil Hills, made his first appearance in a Hertford County court this morning. The kidnapping charge carries a penalty of up to 18 years in prison if Jedele is convicted.
Jedele has been placed on disciplinary suspension without pay, as part of the Kitty Hawk Town policy, according to a Kitty Hawk police news release.
Jedele has been employed with the town since April 2006. The Kitty Hawk Police Department will conduct an internal investigation, per departmental policy, and will continue to assist the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the Ahoskie Police Department with the investigation.
The missing man has not been found, Fitzhugh said.
“We continue to search for Mr. Donald Bradley Smithwick,” Fitzhugh said by phone this morning.
At 6 a.m. Thursday, a caller to 911 reported that Smithwick had been kidnapped from his home in the 400 block of North Colony Ave. in Ahoskie.
He said that police believed that Smithwick was kidnapped in his Dodge pickup as he was preparing to leave for work.
The truck was found nearby hours later, abandoned.
Police also went to an Edenton home where they searched and seized a car, Fitzhugh said.
Through Thursday, the investigative team grew to include the State Bureau of Investigation, the Highway Patrol; the U.S. Marshals office; the Hertford, Bertie and Chowan county sheriffs’ offices; and the Murfreesboro and Edenton police departments.
The chief continued to ask for the public’s help finding Smithwick.
Copyright 2007 The Virginian-Pilot