A Texas man and a South Carolina woman have been arrested in South Carolina and accused of kidnapping two Vicksburg teens at knifepoint Sunday morning from a Mississippi River overlook.

The teens, a 16-year-old female and a 17-year-old male, identified themselves to authorities after a car wreck in Laurens, S.C., at 3 this morning, Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said.

They were being treated at a South Carolina hospital, Pace said, but were expected to be released. Pace declined to identify the teens.

Arrested by South Carolina state police and charged with kidnapping were Ronald Wayne Shugart, 39, of Coolidge, Texas, and Norma Lisa Thiem, 40, of Florence, S.C.

Officials at the Laurens County Jail said Shugart was being treated in the emergency room at the Laurens County Hospital. Shugart was listed in stable condition in the emergency room late this morning, and the spokesman had no information on whether Thiem was in the hospital.

Although no motive for the abduction was known, the wreck is what led to the teens’ first chance to talk with authorities and to their freedom.

Pace said the teens told South Carolina authorities that they had met at a Vicksburg fast food restaurant for breakfast at 9:30 before church. They drove to the overlook across from the Dixiana Motel on Washington Street, leaving the boy’s car at the restaurant.

After eating breakfast at the overlook, they were approached by a man on foot who threatened them with a knife, then forced the teens into the girl’s car and made them drive across the street to the Dixiana. The teens were held in a room at the Dixiana for a brief time before being forced back into the car, Pace said.

“They were, in all likelihood, already gone before anyone realized they were missing,” Pace said.

The teens’ parents became alarmed when the teens didn’t show up for church or answer calls to their cell phones. The parents contacted the sheriff’s department early Sunday afternoon, Pace said. The teens’ names and the girl’s vehicle identification were placed on the NCIC, a nationwide crime information database.

At about 3 this morning, the teens’ parents received a call from paramedics in Laurens, telling them the two had been in a wreck, Pace said. A short time later, South Carolina state police contacted the sheriff’s department, telling them the teens were saying they had been kidnapped.

Warrants were issued this morning, charging Shugart and Thiem with kidnapping, Pace said. The sheriff’s department has also been in contact with federal authorities because the teens were transported across state lines and because the abduction took place from federal property. The overlook is a part of the Vicksburg National Military Park.

“There’s a possibility that federal authorities may adopt this case, and it may be a federal kidnapping charge,” Pace said.