Photos: (from top left clockwise) Johnny Dore, Cheyenne Phifer, Tyler Harp and Ashley Hough
Details were released last week in a Halloween kidnapping investigation in Boone County that led to the arrests of four people.
The alleged kidnapping was the apparent result of a debt owed by the victim for a quarter pound of marijuana.
According to the probable cause affidavit, a woman came to the Boone County Sheriff’s Office shortly before 6 a.m. Oct. 31 to report she and her cousin had been held against their will.
The woman said about 1:30 that morning, she received a message from her cousin from a social media account linked to one of the four suspects asking for help.
When she met her cousin, he arrived with two of the four suspects, 25-year-old Ashley Hough and 28-year-old Johnny Dore, who she alleged were armed. Both were alleged to have been carrying pistols, while Dore also had a baseball bat.
The woman said she left to obtain “collateral” for her cousin’s debt, while his girlfriend accompanied Dore to his residence. She said she was told her cousin and his girlfriend would be held at Dore’s residence until she returned with money or anything of value to pay the debt.
She said she was able to obtain about $90 in cash and offered the money and her vehicle title to Dore, when she arrived at his residence. However, Dore and Hough told her they did not want the collateral she offered, and that her cousin needed to pay the debt himself.
Officers responded to Dore’s residence along Rally Hill Road, where a white male opened the front door and immediately closed it. Hough then answered the door, immediately locked it behind her and told officers she did not have a key to the residence. She denied Dore was at the home.
She told law enforcement the victim had been at the residence, and they had engaged in sexual intercourse. While speaking with Hough, officers heard someone running through the house to the back bedroom.
Officers returned with a search warrant. As it was being executed, officers contacted the victim and advised him to come to the sheriff’s office with his girlfriend.
The victim said his girlfriend dropped him off at Dore’s residence, after he was contacted regarding payment for the marijuana he had been fronted.
The victim said Dore was extremely angry about the debt and took him into a bedroom. While Hough held a pistol on him, Dore allegedly tied his wrists behind his back with zip ties. He said Dore then hit him on the back of the head with the butt of the pistol grip he had been pointing at him. He said Dore then hit him several times with a baseball bat on his face and body and also struck him with his fists.
He said a third suspect, 28-year-old Tyler Harp, was at the residence and used a wooden rod to beat him across the legs.
Dore then reportedly told the victim he had until midnight to come up with half of the $1,000 he owed for the marijuana.
The affidavit does not address how the victim was able to free himself.
At the time of the arrests, Boone County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Roy Martin said the four arrested following the investigation were:
* Hough and Dore — charged with kidnapping, possession with intent to deliver (marijuana), aggravated assault, second-degree battery, distribution near certain facilities, simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms, committing a felony with a firearm, coercion and obstruction of governmental operations; and
* co-defendants, Harp and 24-year-old Cheyenne Phifer — charged with aggravated assault, second-degree battery and obstruction of governmental operations.
Hough and Dore were being held without bond, while bonds for Harp and Phifer were set at $50,000 each.
All of the suspects are from Harrison.
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