A new movie is shining new light on one of the most shocking incidents in Philadelphia’s history; the caught-on-camera abduction of Carlesha Gaither-Freeland nearly a decade ago.
“Abducted Off the Street: The Carlesha Gaither Story” aired on Saturday, Feb. 10, on Lifetime. It tells the true story of Carlesha Gaither-Freeland, a woman who was abducted at knifepoint in Philadelphia and held hostage for three days.
With the movie bringing renewed attention to the incident, Gaither-Freeland sat down with NBC10's Claudia Vargas for her first ever interview about her ordeal.
The abduction of Carlesha Gaither-Freeland and the 'hero' who tried to stop it
Get Philly local news, weather forecasts, sports and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Philadelphia newsletters.
On Nov. 2, 2014, Gaither-Freeland, a nursing aide who was 22 at the time, was returning home after visiting her godson.
At 9:40 p.m., Gaither-Freeland stepped off a bus and began walking along West Coulter Street in Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood.
As she walked, a man, later identified as Delvin Barnes, grabbed Gaither-Freeland and threw her in a gray Ford Taurus that was parked along the street. Surveillance video captured the abduction.
Local
Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood.
Police said Gaither-Freeland tried to fight back by striking Barnes with a hammer. He then threatened to kill her if she didn’t stop.
Gaither-Freeland told NBC10 she dropped her phone on purpose as Barnes forced her into the car.
"You've seen on scary movies or crime movies," she said. "But the first thing when a person takes you, they ask you for any items that you have that you contact people. So I figured maybe if I just leave my phone since I'm pretty sure it was going to be taken away from me, that somebody knew I was on my way home."
Gaither-Freeland also dropped her glasses.
"Anybody that knows me knows that I wear glasses and I wouldn't leave them anywhere," she said. "So if somebody walked by it was evidence. DNA from my glasses and my cellphone which had my contacts."
Those two items were picked up by Dwayne Fletcher, who witnessed the kidnapping. He was walking along Greene Street, near Coulter Street, when he heard Gaither-Freeland screaming. He ran back to Coulter Street where he spotted Barnes pushing Gaither-Freeland into the car. Fletcher said he yelled at Barnes, but backed off when he noticed Barnes was carrying a 12-inch knife.
“He heard me because I was screaming, ‘Yo! You! What are you doing?! Yo, you!’ I don’t know if her screams overpowered mine, but [Barnes] was moving fast though,” Fletcher said.
Fletcher called 911 as he watched the rear passenger window of the Taurus break. At first Fletcher thought it was a gunshot that broke the window. He would later learn that Gaither-Freeland kicked it out while trying to escape. Moments later, the car was gone and Fletcher called police again. Officers arrived at the scene shortly after.
“I just cried and cried. I don’t even know her, but it just happened," Fletcher said. "I feel as though I didn’t do enough at the time."
Sign up for our Breaking newsletter to get the most urgent news stories in your inbox.
Jim Sloan, who was a Philadelphia police detective and lead investigator in the case at the time, would later credit Fletcher with helping investigators save Gaither-Freeland.
“If it wasn’t for him, I don’t think the same outcome would have happened. This man is a hero,” Sloan said during a news conference in 2014.
Gaither-Freeland also said Fletcher's actions helped save her life.
"If it wasn't for him, I don't think I would be here today," she said.
The multistate search for Carlesha Gaither-Freeland
Video of the violent abduction made national headlines. Gaither-Freeland's mother, Keisha Gaither, sobbed as she pleaded for her daughter’s safe return while on television.
Investigators with the ATF received information to be on the lookout for the Ford Taurus.
Gaither-Freeland, meanwhile, was tied up inside the trunk of the car, with no knowledge of the media coverage surrounding her kidnapping. She said she was thinking about the 2013 movie, "The Call," in which a 911 operator helps save a girl who was abducted.
"I was trying to figure out what the other young lady did to get out," she said. "I felt more safe in the trunk than I did outside the trunk."
Gaither-Freeland let Barnes use her ATM card, an action which proved to be critical in the search. Authorities released surveillance images as the search expanded from Philadelphia to Aberdeen, Maryland, where Barnes used Gaither-Freeland's ATM card on the morning of Nov. 3, 2014.
All the while, Gaither-Freeland continued to do anything she could to stay alive.
“I kind of just tried to go along with everything. I thought that would probably be the best. I thought fighting would turn out to be the worst thing that could happen because again I didn’t know the person or who I was dealing with," she said. "So talking was great. He told me stories about other people which I later found out there were other victims. And he talked about the next, I guess, thing we were going to do and how we were going to escape."
She later learned that Barnes was trying to travel to Virginia to visit his daughter.
“I know he constantly talked about his daughter as well," she said. "And there were times when he would take out his phone to listen to voicemails of his daughter talking. So I thought maybe we could go with that topic and hopefully it would touch his heart and he’d maybe reconsider things he was doing.”
Gaither-Freeland said Barnes' love for his daughter humanized him in spite of his monstrous actions.
“I know some people might get upset when I say this. I don’t believe anyone is evil. I don’t," she said. "I believe people go through trauma in their lives and some people just do bad things. Because that’s all they know. So I was really sad for him and just hoped that maybe hearing his daughter’s voice and talking about it, maybe it might change him to want to do better."
Along the way, Barnes and Gaither-Freeland stopped outside a Chinese restaurant as well as a McDonald's where she tried to get help in a discreet way.
"Really just staring at people or trying to get their eyes to look," she said. "I didn’t want to say anything or do anything crazy because he was holding me so I didn’t really know what to do. I’m pretty sure I could’ve ran or screamed or yelled. But I just didn’t know. I was just hoping that somebody would notice me but then again I didn’t see TV so I didn’t know what was going on on the other side.”
As they continued driving, they constantly threw trash out of the car.
"We were in the car and we just had to get rid of things to get some space and he told me to get rid of things as well," she said.
A few items of trash would ultimately lead to a big break for investigators.
A woman who lived in Havre De Grace, Maryland, found a bag of trash that included a receipt from an ACME supermarket in Northeast Philadelphia, a bag of Herr’s potato chips and shattered glass. The woman told NBC10 she initially didn’t think much of it, but later called police after talking to a friend about Gaither-Freeland's abduction.
Investigators analyzed surveillance video from the Northeast Philly ACME. The video showed Barnes buying the same potato chips that the woman found in her driveway.
Investigators also tracked Barnes’ Ford Taurus through a GPS device that had been placed inside the vehicle by the car dealership. Officials said the dealership had installed the GPS in the sedan when Barnes bought it because he had bad credit.
The rescue of Carlesha Gaither-Freeland and arrest of Delvin Barnes
On Nov. 5, 2014, investigators found Barnes and Gaither-Freeland inside the damaged Taurus in the parking lot of a shopping center in Jessup, Maryland, after receiving a tip from the ATF Office in Richmond, Virginia. Law enforcement officers surrounded the vehicle. Barnes then climbed from the backseat to the front seat as ATF agents drove their cars to block the Taurus in.
"I was scared," Gaither-Freeland said. "I didn't know what was going to happen. I didn't know how he was going to react.'
Gaither-Freeland screamed for help as the agents moved in, saying she was the woman who had been abducted in Philadelphia.
Barnes was arrested after he stepped out of the vehicle and Gaither-Freeland, who had suffered injuries but was in good condition, was taken to a Maryland hospital.
Gaither-Freeland remembers calling her mother and grandmother.
"I think I cried more than I talked to be honest," she said. "But [I said] I loved them."
Sloan also recounted meeting Gaither-Freeland at the hospital.
“I entered the room. She was upset. I just told her, ‘I’ve been looking for you,’” Sloan said. “She started to cry and hugged her mother.”
Gaither-Freeland returned to Philadelphia three days after the kidnapping. Her mother smiled as she spoke during the news conference announcing her daughter had been found.
“I’m taking my baby home,” she said. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
Delvin Barnes had ‘problems with women’
At the time of his arrest, Barnes was already wanted for attempted murder and rape charges in connection to a separate incident in which he raped and tried to kill a teenager in Virginia in October 2014, according to officials. Investigators said Barnes hit the teen with a shovel and took her to a mobile home where he doused her in bleach and gasoline before she escaped.
Barnes told investigators he didn’t know Gaither-Freeland and abducted her at random, hoping to steal money from her so that he could travel to Virginia to see his daughter.
Barnes pleaded guilty to the kidnapping and was sentenced to 35 years in prison on June 30, 2016. The now 47-year-old remains incarcerated in a federal prison in California due to being federally tried in the multistate case, according to online records.
Aside from the two incidents in 2014, Barnes had an extensive criminal history.
He was arrested in November 2005 by Philadelphia police and charged with rape, burglary, aggravated assault, making terroristic threats and reckless endangerment, according to court documents.
Resources for victims of sexual assault are available through the National Sexual Violence Resources Center and the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-4673.
Police reports obtained by NBC10 stated Barnes beat, sexually assaulted and held his estranged wife captive, defying a protection from abuse order. The woman is also the mother of his child, family members said.
Barnes’ uncle told NBC10 that his nephew was the son of a minister and had trouble with women in the past.
“It’s just hard for me to accept the viciousness of it, not necessarily surprised,” Barnes’ uncle said. “You know some men grow up having problems with women so they take it out on women. Apparently, he’s one of them.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), visiting www.thehotline.org or texting LOVEIS to 22522.
How Carlesha Gaither-Freeland moved on after the trauma
Gaither-Freeland said she's still dealing with the mental and emotional impact of the abduction but has worked through it through counseling and the help of family and friends.
“I still get scared at times but I really try to stay strong because I now have a son and I just try to stay strong for him," she said. "Also, I try to, if I can, talk to other people and reach out and let them know to be more aware of their surroundings. Always have someone you’re with, walking with. Let somebody know where you’re at.”
Gaither-Freeland said she took time off from work after the ordeal but returning to her job as a nursing assistant at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has helped her as well.
“It was nice to see your coworkers and colleagues and everybody who you thought you may not see again be there to support you," Gaither-Freeland said. "It was really nice. And I really just realized how much of a family we are and I love them.”
As for the new Lifetime movie, Gaither-Freeland said she spoke with people involved with the project and helped give them some ideas but ultimately tried not to get too involved. She also said she had "mixed emotions" about revisiting the abduction.
"It’s going back to a time that was hard," she said. "But I’m happy that I’m able to put out there to share my story to help others who can share their story as well."
As for Barnes, Gaither-Freeland said she's forgiven him despite everything he did to her.
"I don’t think what he did was right and I do think there’s consequences that should be there for him but I do forgive him and think everybody has the second chance to become a better person," she said. "For me to keep on living and moving forward I had to let part of that go. And part of that is forgiving."
