More details have emerged about this week’s arrest in Habersham of a West Virginia man accused of holding a teen girl against her will. According to the Newnan Times-Herald, Dalton Ramsey, 28, is alleged to have raped the girl at a West Georgia park before driving her into Northeast Georgia.
After meeting the 17-year-old Harris County girl online, Ramsey allegedly lured her to meet him by offering to take her to Pennsylvania to see her boyfriend. He picked her up Monday morning and stopped at B.T. Park Reservoir in Coweta County. It is there, the Times-Herald reports, that Ramsey allegedly bound the girl’s hands with tape and raped her at knifepoint.
She used an app on her phone called Noonlight to alert authorities. She typed in “rape” and a description of the vehicle. Noonlight representatives began pinging her phone. They used GPS to update law enforcement agencies about her location.
Captured
Around 5:20 a.m. on September 6, Habersham County 911 received a notice that the grey sedan Noonlight was tracking was northbound on GA 365. Deputies caught up with the vehicle on GA 15/US 441 near Antioch Church Road in Clarkesville. They contacted the female passenger and driver, later identified as Ramsey.
“The driver and passenger were separated and the female passenger told deputies that she was being held in the vehicle by the driver against her will,” says Habersham County Sheriff’s Lt. Matthew Wurtz.
Deputies took Ramsey into custody. According to jail records, deputies initially charged the Buckhannon, West Virginia man with kidnapping. They later changed it to false imprisonment.
As of late Thursday, September 8, Ramsey remained in the Habersham County Detention Center. Upon his release, authorities will transfer him to Coweta County to face charges of rape, kidnapping, aggravated assault with a weapon, and possession of a knife during the commission of a crime.
Law enforcement officials say the teen has been reunited with her family.
