CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A woman is charged with extorting thousands of dollars from her father.
David Ray Duke told Channel 9 that his daughter, Lauren Duke, used an elaborate kidnapping scheme to get the money.
It started as a Facebook friend request.
However, the first message sent fear through David Ray Duke.
“It was her talking, screaming crying. (She was) in bad shape, just ‘Dad, help me.’ It lasted 15 seconds and then it all of a sudden cut off,” he said.
One of the messages said: “You want your daughter back? Let’s agree on a payment. I’ve had her taken, beaten, raped, tied up with her kids to watch. You tell a soul, I’ll kill your family. I want $3,200, and I won’t kill your beauty queen. After 11 p.m., she’s dead.”
“I don’t know what to do,” the father said.
So he went to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police. Because his 27-year-old daughter has been in trouble before, the police traced her ankle monitor.
David Ray Duke said officers found the four kids in her care alone.
“They’re in a vehicle by themselves, locked in, windows rolled up,” David Ray Duke said.
Lauren Duke has several previous arrests in North and South Carolina, including multiple drug charges.
Her father is frustrated and wants harsher consequences.
“This is the icing on the cake,” he said. “I don’t really know what else to say about her situation, but the system simply isn’t working.”
He hopes his daughter can turn her life around.
In addition to an extortion charge, Lauren Duke faces four counts of misdemeanor child abuse.
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