Woman at center of DeSoto CLEAR Alert says she was physically assaulted, forced to take pills by her kidnapper

DESOTO, Texas - A North Texas woman tells FOX 4 she was forced to take pills and physically assaulted when a man she says she was trying to help kidnapped her.

It started at a Taco Casa in Lancaster, where the kidnapping victim says she saw a man who looked like he needed help.

While clutching onto her rosary, the woman who was at the center of a CLEAR Alert earlier this month recounts a harrowing experience that started with her wanting to help out a seemingly homeless man. She doesn’t want her face shown, and FOX 4 is no longer using her name.

The woman says on Feb. 1, she had just finished work as a nurse when she saw a man near a Taco Casa in Lancaster. She bought him tacos. She tells FOX4 she left the taco casa gas station, saw the man, and tried to give him the food in nearby DeSoto. She described what happened next.

"I rolled it down, not very far. Enough for me to give him the food," she said.

The woman says the man reached his arm into her car, put it in park and hopped in her backseat.

"It happened within 10 seconds, if that," she said.

The woman says the man told her to get on I-35 and drive south.

At one point while he was distracted, she says she texted her daughter with a code phrase they set up for emergencies.

"I texted her ‘purple pancakes.’ I was able to get that out with my left hand," she said.

She was also able to describe her kidnapper. Her daughter called police.

"A little bit after San Antonio, it just kind of changes, and I realized I was going south. Very much south," she said.

The woman says they made three stops: one for gas, another for the man to use the bathroom and a final stop about 20 miles from the border where she says he got out of the car.

"I was instructed to stay on that road, drive through the border, not to the border, like people are saying. Through the border. After I go through the border, I go 20 miles and turn around. That was it," she said.

During the hours-long drive, she says the man assaulted her and forced her to take pills.

"Yes, I was assaulted physically. I was strangled," she said. "I had no choice in this matter, so I took what was in his hand, and I swallowed it with water."

Once he was out of the car, the woman says she repeatedly hit her OnStar call button. Finally, she got ahold of someone, who said they were getting help for her. 

"I was telling her, ‘I’m literally at the border. I don’t think you realize I’m right here,’" she said. "She told me, ‘Whatever you do, don’t drive through.’"

Eventually, the woman says she encountered Border Patrol agents while the OnStar representative was still speaking with her. She was taken to a hospital in Laredo for evaluation. 

"Don’t think that’ll never happen to me," she said. "It does happen, and it did happen."

The woman said she’s aware of negative comments about her story and has a message for anyone who is doubting her. 

"That was completely out of line, very out of line. You don’t know what my children went through in those hours," she said. "I just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and wanted to give a guy a taco. That’s it."

The woman says during the drive, the man took her driver's license, a picture of her daughter and her cell phone.

FOX 4 reached out to DeSoto police to ask if they had any updates in the case. They said it is an ongoing investigation.