Update, 8:30 a.m., Tuesday: Police found the victim’s vehicle but are still searching for witnesses, according to an online alert. Officers are asking witnesses to call Police Dispatch at 311, option 1.
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Update, 7:40 p.m., Monday: Nellie Serradell experienced "medical issues” while being driven to police headquarters for questioning, according to an update from Anchorage police Monday evening.
She was transported to the hospital and will be remanded on her outstanding warrant once she is released, according to the alert.
Police wrote they have detained 55-year-old Lincoln F. Courville and 52-year-old Bryant K. Brown in connection to the case.
“Both Courville and Brown were known associates of Serradell. As such, detectives had contacted them multiple times throughout this investigation regarding Serradell being wanted on felony charges. It has been determined that both men were with Serradell for several hours today before police were called,” police wrote.
Courville and Brown were remanded at the Anchorage jail on the charge of hindering an investigation, police wrote.
Police also wrote that surveillance footage in the area showed Serradell attempted to stop multiple vehicles while standing in the middle of the road on Dimond Boulevard, between Arctic Boulevard and C Street, prior to the kidnapping at 5:45 a.m. Sunday. Detectives are seeking out witnesses who may have seen Serradell.
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Police are still looking for the stolen 2009 Saturn Vue, plate JRE860, and the witness who had contact with Serradell at Dimond and Arctic, according to the update.
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A woman police believe abducted and sexually assaulted a driver who gave her a lift early Sunday morning turned herself in Monday afternoon, according to an online alert. Officers said they were still searching for the missing car and a witness.
“This victim was being a good Samaritan,” said MJ Thim, a spokesman for the police department. “She was trying to help someone who was flagging down cars for help and she was violently assaulted.”
Police issued an alert searching for 25-year-old Nellie Serradell on Sunday and said later that she was considered dangerous and armed. A caller reported around 4 p.m. Monday that Serradell wanted to turn herself in, the alert said. She was arrested at Americas Best Suites in Spenard and police said she would be questioned by detectives.
An 18-year-old woman was driving to work around 5:45 a.m. when she noticed 25-year-old Nellie Serradell trying to get her attention from the intersection of Dimond Boulevard and C Street, according to charges filed Sunday. Serradell jumped in front of the blue 2009 Saturn Vue SUV and the woman slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting her, the charges said.
Serradell started yelling for help, so the woman agreed to drive her to her workplace, which was near the Dimond Center Mall, investigators said.
In the parking lot, Serradell grabbed the woman by her sweatshirt and told her she had a gun and “she needed to drive and do what she was told,” according to charges. She punched the woman several times and then began to sexually assault her, according to the charges.
Serradell directed the victim to drive to different areas of town and demanded money from her, charges said. At one point, she forced the victim to park the car outside a mobile home in the Glencaren Court in Northeast Anchorage so she could continue to sexually assault her, according to the charges. Serradell eventually agreed to stop if the victim withdrew money from an ATM machine, investigators said.
Serradell told the victim “that she was going to get cut up into pieces as another murder victim was,” charges said. She began nodding off as the woman drove to find an ATM.
The victim realized she might be able to escape if Serradell was asleep, so she pulled into a gas station on East 15th Avenue around 6:30 or 7 a.m., police said. She got out of the car quietly, summoned a gas station employee for help and called 911, charges said. Serradell woke up and took off in the car, police said.
Investigators connected Serradell to the Sunday assault because of a series of events earlier that morning. About an hour before the abduction, police were called to Arctic and Dimond boulevards for a report of a car that was abandoned in a ditch. The car’s registered owner told police Serradell was driving the car, charges said.
About 45 minutes after police were alerted to the ditched car, a woman was reported attempting to get into a home on the 8500 block of Arctic Boulevard, charges said. Serradell wasn’t there when police arrived, but officers said there were footprints in the snow starting at the house and leading to Dimond Boulevard, where she’d gotten into the victim’s car.
Police included Serradell’s photo in a lineup and the victim said she was “100% sure” she was assaulted by Serradell, who has a distinctive tear drop tattoo under her right eye, according to the charging documents.
A warrant was issued for Serradell’s arrest on charges including kidnapping, sexual assault, robbery and vehicle theft.
Police were still searching Monday night for a witness who was driving a light-colored SUV and spoke with Serradell at the intersection of Dimond and Arctic before the victim picked her up. Thim said officers have little information about the witness but saw the car stop and interact with Serradell on a surveillance video.
The stolen SUV was also not found Monday. It has Alaska license plate JRE 860.
“We have a criminal here who took advantage of the kind nature of the victim,” Thim said. “This victim was just trying to help someone and she was violently assaulted.”