ASHEVILLE – A couple was found guilty — one by jury and the other by plea deal in federal court — of kidnapping a 71-year-old Murphy woman after she offered them a ride from the side of a northern Georgia road, court records show.
On a cold November day in 2023, the woman was driving from Georgia to her home in Murphy when she saw two people walking along the road and offered them a ride, according to court documents in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. Jordan Nathaniel Hedden, 32, of Cherokee County, and his then-girlfriend, Stephanie Miranda Neace, 32, of Blairsville, Georgia, accepted the ride and got in the car, a factual basis brief says.
Hedden asked the woman to drive to Panther Top Road in Murphy so they could pick up a car, which turned out to be a lie. When they arrived at the street, Heden “ordered” her to stop her car, the brief says. When she refused, Hedden grabbed the steering wheel from the backseat to “force (her) to stop.” Making her get into the backseat, Hedden then took over driving, the document says…