Victim: Kidnapper 'seemed like a really nice boy'

By Tricia Pursell

May 28, 2009 04:59 am

— SELINSGROVE — A woman kidnapped and robbed at knifepoint outside the Susquehanna Valley Mall said the suspect did not appear to be a violent criminal.
“He seemed like a really nice boy,” said Alexandra Moratelli, 53, of Elysburg.
When she and her daughter, Alexa, 18, arrived at the Hummels Wharf mall the afternoon of May 18, they allegedly saw Charles Gordner, 28, of Danville, sitting outside on a bench.
When they left the mall around 5 p.m., he was still there. As they walked to their car, they were unaware they were being followed.
“I didn’t see him get up,” the woman said.
The woman climbed into the driver’s seat, and her teen daughter, into the back. They were going to drive to the mall entrance to pick up the woman’s mother, who was waiting inside and who usually sits in the front seat.
That’s when Gordner allegedly jumped into the back seat with the teen, holding a 6- to 8-inch knife.
“He said, ‘I’m not gonna hurt you, but I want all your money,’” the mother alleged he said.
He then demanded the teen’s cell phone, but when she began crying and begged him not to take it, he didn’t, the mother said.
The mother then gave Gordner her wallet, which contained about $50. She said he took the money, and then removed her license, wrote down her name and address, and then returned the wallet to her.
But Gordner allegedly wanted more money and demanded they drive to an ATM. Not from the area, and unaware of where the closest ATM was, the woman asked Gordner where she should go.
He directed her to Swineford National Bank, where more money was obtained and then given to Gordner.
In all, he stole about $100, the mother alleges.
But it still wasn’t enough for him.
As they drove from the bank and down the Old Trail, the mother alleges Gordner told them, “You don’t have a lot of money. I’m going to have to take your car.”
But the mother protested, and told him they “needed their car.”
“People ask me how I was able to talk him out of it,” the mother said, still in disbelief.
Gordner complied, and asked them instead to drive him to Northumberland, and pull by a gasoline station on Route 11, near Duke Street, where he jumped from the vehicle.
Meanwhile, the woman’s mother was still at the mall.
“She thought we went home and left her there,” the woman said.
Though she feared for her and her daughter’s life at the time, the woman said once it was all over, she began to believe that he wouldn’t have really hurt them.
“He didn’t seem like a nasty kid,” the woman said. “I don’t think he’s a criminal. I think he needed money.”
Regardless, the effects of the holdup remain.
“This bothers her very much,” the woman said of her daughter, a college student who had just arrived home for the summer. “I’m fine. I’m a tough person. But she’s not a tough person at all.”
For the first two nights after the kidnapping, the woman said Ralpho Township police patrolled near their home.
At 10 a.m. the day after the kidnapping, a woman called authorities to report she had seen Gordner sitting outside the mall the day of the carjacking. The unidentified woman said she let him use her cell phone to call for a ride.
The number he called was tracked to Gordner’s former girlfriend, Jillian Smith, who confirmed getting a call from him and seeing him that day at about 1:30 p.m., a police report said.
Smith described Gordner as wearing the same clothing as the victims reported.
Police put together a photo lineup, and Alexandra Moratelli identified Gordner. A week ago today, police asked the U.S. Marshal Service to help find and apprehend Gordner.
Gordner surrendered to Williamsport-based U.S. Marshals in Lewisburg at 9:45 a.m. Thursday.
Gordner was arraigned Thursday afternoon on felony kidnapping, robbery, robbery of a motor vehicle, theft by unlawful taking and misdemeanor simple assault and terroristic threats by District Judge Edward Mihalik Jr. in Selinsgrove.
He waived his right to a preliminary hearing on Tuesday before Mihalik.
Gordner is being held in Snyder County Jail in lieu of $50,000 cash bail.
An arraignment before Judge Harold Woelfel is scheduled for July, according to District Attorney Michael Sholley.
Sholley declined to provide information on whether Gordner had previous convictions.
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