'He ruined it for me,' teen kidnapped from Belleview prom says

Marion County Deputy dash camera video shows arrest

MARION COUNTY, Fla. – New dash camera video obtained by News 6 showed the arrest of a 19-year-old accused of kidnapping a girl last month on her way into Belleview High School’s prom.

Marion County deputies said the girl and her date were on the way to Belleview High School’s prom on April 22 when Christopher Rosario, 19, drove up to the high school and said he wanted to talk to her.

The girl said she got into Rosario’s car to avoid a confrontation between him and her date, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Then, Rosario just drove off.

“I thought he was going to get out and do something to my prom date,” the victim told deputies according the dashcam recording.

[Watch the dashcam footage of the arrest and rescue in the video player above]

“To your prom date?” a deputy said. “So he’s not your prom date?”

The deputy, who arrived to find the victim crying hysterically and walking down the road, in her sparkling prom dress away from a crashed car, sounded shocked by the situation in the dash camera video.

The victim said multiple times she needed to get back to the dance.

"Alright ma’am, don’t worry about your prom night now," the deputy said. "You are in a way bigger mess than your prom, now."

"He ruined it for me," she said. "I asked him to put us away before this happened. I knew this would happen."

“You showed up to prom, and when you got there he was like waiting for you?” the deputy said.

Rosario, who deputies said was an acquaintance of the victim, sped off with the girl in the car as she fought him and tried to get out of the vehicle, deputies said. Rosario bit the victim and took her phone so she couldn’t call 911, the Sheriff’s Office said.

“He was just going crazy,” the victim said. “He drove through fences and everything.”

The Sheriff’s Office worked with the girl’s friends, who tracked her phone using an application.
A nearby deputy responded to the area where the girl’s phone was pinging and drove toward Rosario, deputies said.

When Rosario saw deputies driving toward him, he crashed his car into the woods, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Deputies said many people witnessed the incident and saw the girl hanging out of the vehicle while screaming for help.

“I was trying to get away from him. I hit him, and I broke my nail. He bit me,” the victim told the deputy.

Some people riding dirt bikes were on the dirt road near where the suspect crashed the vehicle said they saw the whole incident.

“I saw somebody hanging out of the car and just yelling, ‘help, help, help’,” one of the witnesses told deputies.

When the deputy arrested Rosario, the suspect claimed that the victim was driving, which does not match any of the witness accounts.

“Excuse me, sir, can I just tell you something?” Rosario said to the deputy who was placing handcuffs on him.

“I just wanted you to know that she was driving, and I was trying to tell her to relax, and she’s just … not in the right state of mind,” he said.

Rosario was arrested and charged with felony kidnapping, according to the Sheriff's Office. He is being held in the Marion County Jail.

Victims of domestic violence can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline, available 24 hours a day, at 1-800-799-7233.


Recommended Videos