Truck driver describes helping save young woman from alleged kidnapping

Anthony Moore said the woman approached him as he was driving in South Carolina.
Thursday, June 4, 2026 3:02PM PT
A truck driver is opening up after helping rescue a woman who had allegedly been kidnapped by a man impersonating a police officer.

Anthony Moore told "Good Morning America" he was driving down a road in Aiken County, South Carolina, when he witnessed a young woman being chased by a swerving Cadillac.

"I noticed someone ran across the road and ... a car was following them. I'm wondering, 'Well, maybe that's a couple that got into it,'" Moore said in a "GMA" segment airing Thursday.

Moore said the young woman "would run from one side of the road, the car would go over there. She would run up to the other side of road, the car would go over there."

Moore said the young woman eventually approached his truck and told him the man in the car that was following her had her phone and her diploma.



"I said, your diploma?" Moore recounted. "She said, 'Yes, sir.' She said, 'I just graduated yesterday.'"

Moore said the young woman told him the man had approached her while she was walking, allegedly claiming to be law enforcement, and allegedly forced her into his car in fake handcuffs.

According to Moore, the young woman said when her alleged kidnapper pulled onto a dirt road and headed toward the trunk of the car, she saw her chance to escape.

Moore said the young woman told him despite being handcuffed, she managed to wiggle herself across the backseat, out the driver's door, and ran.

The man eventually got back in his car and pulled up to Moore's truck claiming to be police, he said.



"I thought it was strange that he's in a teal green Cadillac with a busted-out window with plastic on the back of it," Moore said.

When a second driver stopped and called 911, the man sped away, Moore added.

Police arrested 39-year-old Jonathan Willard after the incident, according to a June 1 press release from the Aiken County Sheriff's Office.

ABC News has reached out to the Aiken County Solicitor's Office for more information on Willard's representation.