MIAMI _ Last month as a Georgia couple on their honeymoon went on a bizarre crime spree _ kidnapping and raping a woman, police said, and stealing sodas in the buff _ they narrowly missed abducting another target: a University of Miami student living in aN apartment downtown.
The 20-year-old woman told police she was headed back to her apartment after visiting a nearby 7-Eleven when Timothy Lowe pulled her into a staircase. There, they were joined by Rashada Hurley, wearing pink underwear and a black top.
When Lowe told her the three of them were to get into a vehicle parked on the street, the UM student told police she saw an opening and fled. She recognized the couple four days later when their crime spree made headlines and she called police.
On Wednesday, police added a charge of attempted kidnapping to Lowe and Hurley's rap sheet, which already includes charges of petit theft, indecent exposure, kidnapping, robbery and sexual battery.
The additional charge came almost a month after the incident, police said, because the UM student left soon after the incident for lengthy vacation.
"The victim was going on vacation for a month to Greece," said Miami Police Detective Yelitza Cedano.
Police didn't have to go far to find Lowe, 37 and Hurley, 32. Both remain jailed at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional facility after being denied bond during their initial court appearance in July.
The Georgia couple made headlines last month after they were arrested standing naked on a street corner for stealing two sodas from a 7-Eleven. It didn't take police long to link them to a much more brutal, earlier crime.
Late in the afternoon of July 9 _ a day before they were arrested and about an hour after their failed attempt to abduct the UM student _ police say Lowe and Hurley approached a 28-year-old woman in a Hialeah Publix parking lot. There, Hurley asked for directions. When the woman lowered her window, Hurley smacked her in the head.
The woman told police the next thing she remembered was Hurley holding her down in the car while Lowe drove and smashed her in the face with an open hand. The woman said she was continually threatened with a knife until they got to a room at a Motel 6.
She told police she was held at the motel against her will for four hours while she was repeatedly raped by both Lowe and Hurley. She said Lowe even forced her to text her mother and say everything was OK. With Lowe fumbling with her phone and Hurley preoccupied, the woman said she fled the room naked and flagged down a passing motorist.
Lowe and Hurley split so quickly, police said, they left behind identification.
They were captured the next day by Miami police who received a complaint from the operator of a 7-Eleven who claimed Lowe and Hurley entered the store naked, poured sodas and left.
Police found the couple about a block away drinking their sodas _ and still naked.
They didn't put up a fight as they were taken into custody and police quickly linked Lowe and Hurley to attack on the Hialeah woman a day earlier.
