Couple wanted on sex servitude, prostitution, kidnapping charges caught, NC cops say
The search for a North Carolina couple wanted on multiple sex crime-related charges ended Tuesday night when the suspects were arrested in Virginia, the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office said.
The sheriff’s office said Amanda Lynn Starr and Christopher Gray Stevenson were taken into custody by the Virginia Beach Police Department, according to a Facebook post.
Starr, 28, and Stevenson, 27, were both wanted for first-degree kidnapping, sexual servitude of an adult victim and promoting prostitution for profits, the sheriff’s office said in the post.
The sheriff’s office began investigating Starr and Stevenson last Saturday as part of a search for a missing person who investigators believed was “being held against their will, and possibly involved in the commercial sex industry,” the Winston-Salem Journal reported.
The person was found, but the investigation then shifted to locating Starr and Stevenson after deputies found more evidence in a search of their apartment, according to WFMY.
The sheriff’s office said it received information the couple might be in Virginia, so investigators reached out to Virginia Beach police, who arrested Starr and Stevenson around 8 p.m., according to the Facebook post.
Extradition has begun, as the sheriff’s office said on Facebook that it is in the process of bringing the couple back to Alamance County.
Both Starr and Stevenson have criminal records.
Stevenson is facing a kidnapping charge from 2018, and Starr “was recently released from prison,” WGHP reported.
Jail records show she was released from the North Carolina Institution for Women on Feb. 27 after serving more than five years behind bars after being convicted on felony drug charges, and a misdemeanor child abuse charge, according to Heavy.
On Feb. 27, Starr posted a photo on her Facebook page, with the caption “First day.”
She and Stevenson could face significant time in prison if they are convicted on the new charges.
In North Carolina, first-degree kidnapping is a class C felony, and the maximum sentence is 182 months in prison, according to Criminal Defense Lawyer. The maximum sentence for the sexual servitude and promoting prostitution charges — both class F felonies — is 41 months behind bars, the website reported.
This story was originally published May 8, 2019 at 7:15 AM.
