TACOMA-Drugs, kidnapping, torture and money.
Those are the key elements of a case involving four people who allegedly kidnapped and tortured a Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier after they claimed he was a “snitch” and wanted ransom money.
The four people involved in the kidnapping, according to Pierce County Superior Court records, are: Frederick Walter Clifford, 34, Melissa Marie Parr, 33, Krista Mae James, 30 and Jacques Dumont Gerber, 33.
All four have been charged with first-degree kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment. Parr and Gerber face charges of drug possession with intent to deliver and unlawful use of a building for drug purposes.
Another woman, Brenda Dumont Gerber, 34, was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance.
The charges - which were filed in Pierce County Superior Court on Monday- detail how an alleged drug deal turned into a nightmare for the JBLM soldier.
"Snitch"
The trouble started on July 24, when the victim says Clifford picked him up and drove him to Parr’s trailer to buy methamphetamine. The victim admitted to police that he been buying from her since April.
After the deal, according to court papers, the victim went home but was asked to return to the trailer by Parr. He went back and hung out with Parr and two other people until 1 a.m.
That’s when another man showed up at the trailer and “told Parr that the victim was a snitch.”
“Parr and the first male then confronted the victim about being a snitch and pushed him up against the wall to check and see if he was ‘wired,’” according to court documents.
The victim says Parr, Clifford and Jacques Gerber then alletedly tied the victim up with an electrical cord and tortured him for the next several hours, according to court documents. That included allegedly using a taser, punching several times, including in the nose, and shooting him with a BB gun as many as “100 times.”
“This went on for several hours,” court documents state. “The victim said he did not fight back because he figured it would only make it worse.”
In the morning, Parr allegedly told the victim that he owed her $400 for being a snitch and ordered Clifford to take the victim to get money.
"Immediate cash"
For the next several hours, court papers state, Clifford took the victim to several places to try and obtain money.
Clifford even introduced the victim as a hostage to some people, and Clifford made the victim call family and friends to try and get money, court papers state.
But by the afternoon, the victim had talked Clifford into taking him to JBLM, “so he could go to a bank on post and get a credit card which would allow him to get some immediate cash.”
At that point, the victim had a clerk at the base gate call military police, who then contacted Lakewood Police.
Court papers don’t state exactly where or how police arrived to rescue the victim. What did happen, however, was that the authorities eventually arrested the four people whom police believe were present during the drug deal, kidnapping and torture.
Police searched the trailer and found 18 grams of methamphetamine in the room where Brenda Gerber was present during the kidnapping, along with her three children. In the northern part of the trailer, authorities found drug paraphernalia, a scale and four small baggies of methamphetamine. Authorities also discovered a pill bottle containing the drug Vicodin on Parr.
All of the defendants have been arraigned and are in Pierce County Jail. Their next court appearances are scheduled for September.
