The man accused of abducting a woman off a Philadelphia street is also a suspect in the abduction and rape of a Virginia teen.
Delvin Barnes, 37, was arrested Wednesday along the side of a road in Jessup, Maryland. Barnes was caught on surveillance video abducting 22-year-old Carlesha Freeland-Gaither off a Philadelphia street Sunday, according to investigators. Freeland-Gaither was found alive in Barnes’ car Wednesday at the same location where he was arrested.
Barnes, who has ties to Philadelphia and Virginia, has an extensive criminal history, including an assault and false imprisonment conviction involving his estranged wife and most recently, charges in the rape and abduction of a 16-year-old girl from Richmond, Virginia.
The teen girl was reported missing back on Oct. 1. On Oct. 3, the girl arrived at a business on Route 106 in Charles City County, Virginia, two miles from Barnes’ home, investigators said. The girl was naked, bleeding and covered in burns from gasoline and bleach, according to police.
After a DNA test was conducted on the girl, investigators identified Barnes as the suspect Oct. 28. Barnes was arrested in Virginia in July after he was accused of making a bomb threat. That charge was amended to trespassing, misdemeanor, and the case was dropped Oct. 24, just four days before he was identified as a suspect in the teen girl’s abduction.
Barnes was then held on a bench warrant in connection to the teen girl’s abduction, which include charges of attempted capital murder, assault, malicious injury with acid, forcible rape and other related offenses. He will be charged federally in connection to Freeland-Gaither’s kidnapping, police said.
