Upper Darby Township, Pa.
Everett Simpson, 41, was held on $1 million bail each on charges of car theft and fleeing justice, police said. Federal prosecutors in Vermont also filed kidnapping charges Monday.
Simpson pushed the woman and her son into their car outside the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester on Saturday and drove to the Upper Valley.
According to an affidavit from FBI Special Agent Jennie Emmonds, Simpson told the woman he was looking for his wife, who he said was named Sherise, and they drove to the Fairlee/Bradford area where he had her get out of the car and knock on the door of a house to see if Sherise was there. Simpson kept the boy in the car with him, and after the woman got back in the car, Simpson allegedly tried to sexually assault her in the car near Pavillion Road and Route 5 in Thetford.
Around 3:45 p.m. Saturday, Thetford police received multiple emergency calls saying a young woman was screaming for help and trying to escape from a moving vehicle.
The woman said she was afraid Simpson would try to kill her and her son on a roadside and convinced him to take them to a hotel, where cameras might be present. Simpson drove her to the Comfort Inn in White River Junction and had her rent a room with her credit card, according to the FBI affidavit.
The woman told police that he sexually assaulted her in the room at the Comfort Inn in front of her son and then left, according to the complaint. That set off a manhunt for Simpson, a former resident of St. Albans, Vt. The FBI, Vermont State Police and the Hartford Police Department worked together on the search.
Simpson had escaped from the Valley Vista addiction treatment facility in Bradford, Vt., and driven to New Hampshire in a vehicle he stole in Bradford, police said. His wife, Sherise, told Vermont State Police she had been in hiding after learning Simpson had left Valley Vista on Jan. 2
A call was made to an attorney who has represented Simpson in the past, seeking comment.
On Sunday afternoon, police from Prospect Park, Pa., were trying to make an unrelated traffic stop when an automated system flagged the car in question as stolen, according to Vermont State Police. The car did not stop, and a chase ensued.
The car was eventually abandoned, and police were searching for the driver when another vehicle was reported stolen. Officers gave chase again, and that car crashed into a telephone pole.
Police from Upper Darby Township, Pa., took the driver into custody, and he was identified as Simpson. He was taken to a hospital, Vermont police said.
Simpson faces extradition to Vermont.
News staff writer John Gregg contributed to this report.