MODESTO, CA - Modesto police investigate a possible motive behind a daylight kidnapping of a disabled teenager.
According to the victim's mother, 18-year-old Ricky Williams was attacked in his garage and then abducted by two men Monday afternoon. A few minutes later, Williams was let out of the suspects' car in an unfamiliar neighborhood several blocks from his home.
"He was putting cans away, someone hit him from behind, and he said everything went black," Williams' mother Christina Courtright said.
Williams had contracted meningitis six times as a child, which left him deaf, unable to speak and partially disabled in his legs. He communicates by sign language.
"We did notice drag marks, like he was dragged all the way out to the fence," Courtright said. "That means someone had to hoist him over that fence."
The family lives at the end of La Coruna Place and the fence backs up to a bike trail and Standiford Avenue. It's often a busy area, but no one has come forward to say they saw anything suspicious.
"They put him into a car and took him. Someone had to see something," Courtright said.
She was home at 4 p.m., the time of Williams' abduction, but didn't hear anything. Her neighbors also didn't see anyone around their home.
Williams told his mother that when he regained consciousness, he started crying and screaming loudly. The two men, who took him, then dropped him off 1.4 miles away in the Winegarden Drive neighborhood.
"You could just tell by the look in his eyes, something wasn't right. He was really scared," resident Greg Waid said.
Waid and his father first saw Williams on the corner of Winegarden and Winery Way, but thought he was waiting for someone. Williams soon approached their home and tried to communicate that he needed help.
"He wasn't responding to us talking to him, so I pulled out my cell phone and we started communicating through our cell phones," Waid said.
Williams was able to tell Waid his address, and Waid drove him home. Williams was only gone for 20 minutes, but neither his money nor his new cell phone were taken. The garage also wasn't burglarized.
"My son is 18. He is disabled, but he's 18 and they took him," said Courtright, who has no clue why her son was abducted and hopes someone will come forward, so police can identify who attacked and kidnapped Williams.
Modesto police said they are investigating the case as a kidnapping with suspicious circumstances.
Police said Williams was checked out by paramedics, but he refused medical treatment. Courtright said Williams will see a doctor on Wednesday.
News10/KXTV