U.S. marshals nab man in S. Carolina in Jewelers Row abduction; more arrests expected

The search for three men who abducted and tortured a woman who works on Jewelers Row has led to Lake City, S.C., where one man was arrested Friday.

Khayree Gay, 31, was captured by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives without incident at 1 p.m. Friday at the Security Inn & Suites, according to ATF Special Agent Steve Bartholomew.

The two other men were not at the hotel, 570 miles south of Philadelphia, when marshals moved in, authorities said. More arrests are anticipated, they added.

Gay remains in custody at the Florence (S.C.) County Detention Center, according to the sheriff's office there. He faces federal kidnapping and robbery charges.

The arrest, the result of an ongoing joint investigation between Philadelphia's Central Detectives and the ATF, comes one week after the 53-year-old woman was abducted while approaching her car in a garage at 733 Chestnut St.

The victim had just left her job at the National Watch & Diamond Exchange about 4 p.m. April 4 when three men jumped out of a paint-smeared maroon Ford Econoline van and grabbed her.

Police said the van had been seen frequently in the Jewelers Row area for a month before the abduction.

The men demanded codes to the jewelry store's safe - information the victim did not have, police said.

They took her store key, but after she was unable to give them the codes, the men put a hood over her head and bound her hands and feet with zip ties.

With the van parked atop the garage roof, the men tortured her for nearly 30 minutes, including shooting her seven times with a stun gun. The woman was told she was going to die if she didn't hand over the codes to the safe.

The men then drove her around the city, using her debit card at various ATM locations, including a Wawa and a Chinese restaurant.

They eventually dumped her, still bound, in a wooded area near a Darby Township cemetery, where she managed to free herself from the zip ties.

But her assailants returned and abducted her once more. They bound her again, this time in handcuffs and shackles, and returned her to the cemetery, where she was told to stay. As the cemetery grew dark, she managed to flag down a car on a nearby road.

She was treated at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center for a concussion and broken ribs, among other injuries.

The U.S. Attorney's Office is handling the case, authorities said.

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