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20 Year Sentence in Elderly Kidnapping Case

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GEORGETOWN, Del. (AP) - A Delaware man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for kidnapping and assaulting an elderly couple.

The News Journal reports 29-year-old Steven Snell was sentenced Friday. Authorities say Snell entered the couple's Rehoboth Beach home in July 2018 and asked to use their phone.

Court records and testimony say Snell then grabbed the 82-year-old man and held a box cutter to his throat. The man yelled out to his 81-year-old wife, who Snell then shoved to the ground.

Snell forced the man, now bound, into the trunk of a car in which the woman was forced into the front seat. He then forced the woman to withdraw cash at an ATM, where he left her and fled in the car that he later abandoned with the man inside.

Don Rush is the News Director and Senior Producer of News and Public Affairs at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.