Police confirm Kwik Shop kidnapping victim stabbed abductor

The young woman kidnapped from a Cedar Rapids gas station last month stabbed her abductor before police arrived, police confirmed Tuesday.

Cedar Rapids Police Chief Greg Graham said the woman fought back inside Keith Elson Jr.'s apartment on the morning of May 17. Officers kicked in Elson's door about seven hours after she was taken from Kwik Shop, 1001 First Ave. SW, and found both of them inside.

Medics brought the woman, 19, and Elson, 54, out on a stretchers as onlookers gathered. Police said Elson had a stab wound to his chest, but would not say who inflicted it. Graham on Tuesday confirmed the victim did stab Elson.

Graham commended his officers and timely tips from the public, but he said the woman “saved her own life, too, by fighting the way she did.”

“She's an incredibly strong girl, especially for her age,” Graham said. ”I'm very impressed with what she did, how she did it and how she kept her head about her.”

Elson is charged with first-degree kidnapping and first-degree sexual abuse. He is scheduled to be arraigned June 22 in Linn County District Court.

If convicted of the charges, Elson faces two mandatory life sentences without parole.

Graham said it appears through the investigation that Elson planned the kidnapping. They believe he was in the store a few hours before the kidnapping.

The biggest break in the case came when a citizen pointed out a bicycle that was chained up near the Kwik Shop. The person and officers recognized it as Elson's. Officers went to his apartment a short time later and found blood on the door. When they announced themselves, the victim screamed.

“Miracles do happen, and this clearly was one,” Graham said.

Graham said the woman has walked through the entire string of events with investigators.

“I don't know that the (evidence) could be any stronger,” Graham said.

Grainy surveillance video captured Elson taking the employee out of the store at knifepoint. An ordinance in Cedar Rapids requires stores to have surveillance video if only one clerk is at the business overnight.

Graham said he plans to work with store owners to improve the quality of the surveillance video. Ideally, Graham said he would like to have live surveillance feeds accessible from the computers in police cars.

Some communities are already taking advantage of that technology, he said.

“If not for that camera at the convenience store that night, we would have been hours behind,” Graham said. ”Because of that, we were able to determine that she didn't just walk away.”