Overheated car leads to kidnapping arrest

A Tennessee father accused of kidnapping and threatening to kill his daughters - a toddler and an infant - was captured Tuesday in Catoosa County after his car overheated.

After leading Georgia and Tennessee police on a hunt, Richard Shuey, of Crossville, Tenn., was found with his broken down car at a gas station in Fort Oglethorpe with his 2-year-old and 5-month-old daughters safely inside the vehicle, officials said.

Catoosa County Sheriff's deputies and Georgia State Patrol officers had been searching for Shuey, said Catoosa Sheriff Phil Summers. Shuey was traced through a cell phone call Tuesday morning from a convenience store on Battlefield Parkway, Summers said.

Police were aware that he had threatened to kill the girls, Summers said.

Cpl. Tim Busby spotted the raised hood of the white Cadillac Shuey reportedly was driving on Cloud Springs Road in Fort Oglethorpe. Busby was able to arrest Shuey outside the car without any resistance at about 11 a.m., Summers said.

"This was a happy ending to a sad story," he said.

The girls' mother picked them up at the sheriff's department, he said.

Shuey faces charges in Crossville of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated robbery, and reckless endangerment of a child, reports show.

He will be transported back to the Cumberland County Jail in the next 24 hours, said Cumberland Sheriff Butch Burgess.

Shuey also is accused of beating up his mother-in-law Monday night, Burgess said, but that incident still is being investigated.

"He's been doing some bizarre things," Burgess said, but would not elaborate.

Staff writer Todd South contributed to this story.

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