Police find NC store empty, clerk missing. She was kidnapped and driven to TN, cops say

The discovery of an empty store in North Carolina sparked a search for the missing clerk and her accused kidnapper that ended in another state.

The Winston-Salem Police Department said in a news release it responded to a security check at a Speedway at about 12:30 a.m. Jan. 8.

The 40-year-old clerk working that night wasn’t there, and when investigators reviewed security cameras, they discovered a man, later identified as Deangelo Toomer, had staged an armed robbery and abducted the cashier 45 minutes earlier, police said.

Law enforcement put out an Ashanti Alert for the missing woman, then authorities tracked down her SUV traveling in Erwin, Tennessee, about a 150-mile drive west from Winston-Salem.

Deputies with the Unicoi County Sheriff’s Department tried to pull over 40-year-old Toomer, but said he briefly fled before they eventually took him into custody.

The clerk was restrained but unharmed in the backseat, police said.

Investigators don’t have evidence the two knew each other but said Toomer has an “extensive” history of violent criminal convictions.

Winston-Salem is about an 80-mile drive northeast from Charlotte.

This story was originally published January 8, 2025 at 12:36 PM with the headline "Police find NC store empty, clerk missing. She was kidnapped and driven to TN, cops say."