FOUNTAIN — Authorities are investigating a sexual battery and abduction after an alleged assailant drove a woman more than eight miles to a Fountain grocery store, officials confirmed Monday.
Investigators within the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office have a person of interest and are conducting interviews from witnesses, according to a CCSO news release. However, an arrest had not been made in the case as of Monday afternoon.
Bay County Sheriff’s Office deputies initially responded to the Fountain Piggly Wiggly on U.S. 231 just before 6 p.m. Saturday evening after a store clerk called 911 in reference to a sexual battery. The suspect and the woman came into the Piggly Wiggly, where the woman was able to tell a store employee she was sexually battered, BCSO officials said.
The clerk called the authorities. However, when BCSO arrived, the man fled on foot.
The case was turned over to CCSO for investigation since the original incident occurred in Altha. A man entered a woman’s home off Walter Potts Road, where she was allegedly sexually battered. He then abducted the woman and drove her to Fountain, officials said.
The victim convinced her assailant during the trip to pull over for some food before revealing her dilemma to the clerk, officials said. Many of the other details in the case have not yet been released, pending CCSO’s ongoing investigation.