93.3 KWTO Keeping Watch Over the Ozarks
A man from Birch Tree is in custody on charges of kidnapping his own daughter.
Investigators say 30-year-old Joseph Raider had been contacting his ex-girlfriend, threatening suicide if he didn’t get to see his child.
The woman said she finally agreed to meet with him the night of Monday, July 23.
When they arrived at the Casey’s General Store along Gibson Avenue in West Plains, she noticed to smell of alcohol, and said Raider appeared to be intoxicated.
That’s when authorities say an argument began, and Raider grabbed the child and fled the scene.
The child’s mother did admit that Raider is the father of her daughter, but that he doesn’t appear on the birth certificate or any paperwork certifying him as the child’s father.
On Tuesday morning, law enforcement was contacted by a local business owner claiming to have seen Raider and the child at the Lynch Equipment Company.
The witness invited the two inside, then locked them inside the business until police arrived.
Raider was taken into custody, and the child returned to her mother. He has been charged with parental kidnapping, and is being held in the Howell County Jail.