Randy Searles – images from Facebook
OILDALE — A wanted fugitive accused of holding a woman captive for two days inside his Oildale home was arrested on Sunday.
Randy Searles, 29, was booked into the Kern County Jail on charges of kidnapping, false imprisonment, terrorist threats, domestic battery, resisting arrest and two outstanding felony no-bail warrants.
Searles held the victim captive in this Oildale home.
According to the Kern County Sheriff’s Office, the incident began on Friday, October 9, when Searles kidnapped the victim outside a home on the 3600 block of Caldwell Drive and took her to his residence in the 700 block of Castaic Avenue in Oildale.
On October 11, the victim sent a text message to her mother, stating that her life was in danger.
Deputies responded and said that they were told by the victim though a closed window that she was trapped inside with all the doors and windows nailed shut. She also told deputies that her captor was hiding in the attic of the home.
“Deputies made entry into the residence and rescued the victim, who was uninjured,” said KCSO Public Information Officer Ray Pruitt. “The suspect was eventually persuaded to surrender and was taken into custody without incident.”
Though this latest incident is the most serious charge against Searles, he has a long history of trouble with the law while living in Bakersfield. Records going back to 2005 show an arrest in May of that year, when he was 19-years-old, for possession of stolen property and criminal conspiracy. Three years later he was charged with attempted vehicle theft, criminal conspiracy, and possession of a controlled substance and paraphernalia. In September of 2008 he was detained for bicycle traffic violations, and found to be in possession of marijuana and paraphernalia. He was also charged with resisting arrest in that incident.
He was arrested twice in 2009 – in January for driving with a suspended licence in an unregistered vehicle without insurance, and for buying or selling items with their identification removed – likely to hide the fact that the were stolen, and in April for possession of stolen property. A year later he was charged with possession of a dangerous weapon. Then in January of 2011 he was arrested for vehicle theft and possession of a stolen vehicle, driving it with a suspended license and while carrying drug paraphernalia.
Then in November of 2013 he was arrested on charges of hit and run causing property damage, reckless evading with wanton disregard for public safety, resisting arrest, possession of metal knuckles, a controlled substance, and marijuana, once again driving on that suspended license, and violating his probation.
This year, on March 27, he was arrested for disorderly conduct – public intoxication. Then on April 5 for possession of a controlled substance for sale, and again for public intoxication on April 17.
The Sheriff’s department did not release the name of the victim in this latest incident, but it was reported that she had been dating Searles, and had been in the process of ending their relationship.
