A Southwest Philadelphia man who apparently planned to run for office against U.S. Rep. Bob Brady was found alive in Maryland yesterday, a day after police thought that he had been abducted.
Got it?
Didn’t think so. The perplexing tale goes something like this:
On Tuesday, Eastwick resident Bismark Agbemble, 29, told his girlfriend, his father and a friend that he had been threatened on the street — he didn’t say where — by two men, police sources said.
Agbemble, a motivational speaker who refers to himself as “Mr. CEO,” was apparently so unnerved by the threats that he stayed at a relative’s house in Yeadon that night.
The following day, his family became worried when he didn’t show up to teach his regular class at ITT Technical Institute in King of Prussia, sources said.
When a relative went to his Eastwick home, the garage door was open, furniture was overturned inside and threatening graffiti was sprayed on the walls, the sources said.
The relative called police, who began trying to piece together the mystifying case.
“There was some concern, because of these threats he had described to others,” said Capt. Benjamin Naish, of Southwest Detectives.
Agbemble’s cell phone had been turned off, and the message had been changed to one “that suggested he was being held against his will,” Naish said.
But with no ransom note, and no contact from any abductors, police and FBI agents who joined the investigation couldn’t make out the situation.
Then, yesterday, they caught a break. Agbemble’s cell phone was apparently turned on and traced to Glen Burnie, Md., Naish said.
Glen Burnie police found Agbemble in a blue Jaguar outside a hotel he apparently had checked into. He appeared to be unharmed.
Investigators interviewed Agbemble and were convinced the “whole thing had been made up, that the threats were not real,” Naish said.
Sources said investigators believe Agbemble may have been plagued recently by mental-health problems.
Agbemble has two Web sites — www.bismark2010.com, and www.partners4change.com.
The former appears to be set up for campaign donations, while the latter features a photo of Agbemble and describes an advocacy group he was a part of. The site also features a quote from Agbemble that sounds like a campaign theme: “We’re united by our shared vision to improve the lives of all individuals.”
Dana DiFilippo has covered murder, mayhem and miscellany at the Daily News since 2000. She grew up in Delaware County and studied journalism and photography at Penn State University. E-mail tips to difilid@phillynews.com.
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Stephanie Farr has been reporting for the Daily News since 2007, covering everything from gay porn stars who entered the burglary business to moon trees, skinheads, murders and naked bike rides. She covers crime, both in the city and suburbs, and keeps clippings of bizarre Associated Press articles. Her favorite this year was the story about the drunk in Punxsutawney who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dead opossum. E-mail tips to farrs@phillynews.com.
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Phillip Lucas joined the Daily News crime team in 2011. He grew up on the mean streets of Seattle and studied journalism and psychology at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Before landing in the City of Brotherly Love, Phillip was a reporter for The News Journal in Wilmington, Del. Email tips to lucasp@phillynews.com.
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Morgan Zalot is the newest crime reporter at the Daily News, starting in 2011 after interning at the paper twice as a Temple University journalism student. In her past stints at the DN, she covered just about everything, from drunken Phillies fans to a barber shop in a high school to a grisly murder-suicide. She’s a born-and-raised Philly girl who grew up in the Northeast. E-mail tips to zalotm@philly.com.
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