Kidnapping suspect shoots self

IDAHO FALLS -- A man suspected of abducting a 14-year-old girl from her parents' yard fatally shot himself after a chase into a wilderness area and a gunfight with lawmen, Bonneville County sheriff's investigators said Thursday.

Investigators believe Keith Glenn Hescock, a 42-year-old convicted felon, took the girl from her rural Idaho Falls-area home early Wednesday while she slept outside on a trampoline with her sister.

Hescock apparently took the girl to his house and put her in some type of restraint, although investigators declined to disclose details.

She escaped about 3 p.m. while Hescock was at work, Bonneville County Sheriff Byron Stommel said. She called deputies and told them where to find her and was delivered back to her parents, still wearing her pajamas.

"It's just amazing she was able to free herself and get out of this predicament," Stommel said.

Officials refused to release the girl's name Thursday. Investigators are determining whether the victim was sexually assaulted. "She's had enough trauma already," sheriff's Capt. Paul Wilde said.

Deputies and a SWAT team were waiting outside Hescock's home when he arrived home from work Wednesday about 5 p.m., but Hescock sped away in his pickup truck.

As many as 10 deputies chased him about 35 miles northeast of Idaho Falls into Madison County, where a Forest Service road ended at a trailhead.

Hescock tried to drive over a berm where the road had been closed but became high-centered, Madison County Sheriff Roy Klingler said.

Hescock didn't respond to a deputy's commands. Officers sent in a police dog but Hescock shot and killed the animal. He exchanged gunfire with deputies, shooting sheriff's Sgt. Todd Raymond in the leg, but then Hescock apparently turned the gun on himself, Wilde said.

Raymond was listed in fair condition at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center and may undergo surgery.

Stommel said he knew Hescock owned multiple firearms, despite being a convicted felon.

"It was my fear this would be a shootout," Stommel said.

Investigators also planned to search Hescock's home for evidence that may link him to the September 2001 disappearance of Amber Hoopes.

In 1997, Hescock was arrested for poaching twice in less than a month. He returned to the scene of the first offense and was spotted by Idaho Fish and Game officers.