Trial scheduled Aug. 8 for kidnap suspects|[5/25/05]

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, May 25, 2005

A man and a woman charged with kidnapping and carjacking two Vicksburg teens had a trial date set in a hearing in federal court Tuesday.

Annette Myrtis Pierce Thiem, 42, of Florence, S.C., and Ronald Wayne Shugart, 39, of Coolidge, Texas, were indicted on one charge each of carjacking and kidnapping by a federal grand jury on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Thiem and Shugart were arrested in Laurens, S.C., following a traffic accident. They were charged with the May 1 kidnapping of Heather Pritchard, 15, and Shane Gilmore, 17, from Louisiana Circle, a Mississippi River overlook across Washington Street from the Dixiana Motel. Gilmore and Pritchard had gone to the overlook to meet friends for a fast-food breakfast before going to church.

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While at the overlook, they were abducted at knife point and taken to the Dixiana where they were locked in closet before being forced into a car and driven 18 hours to South Carolina. When the car was rear ended, Gilmore managed to get out and report what happened to a South Carolina state trooper who arrived to investigate the wreck.

Thiem and Shugart waived extradition and were returned to Mississippi where the U.S. Marshal’s Service housed them at the Madison County jail.

Sheila Wilbanks, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Jackson, said Thiem and Shugart were ordered held without bond in preparation for a trial on Aug. 8 U.S. District Court before Judge David Bramlette.

She said the trial is tentatively set to be held in the federal courtroom in Vicksburg.