Man Convinces Woman To Give Him A Ride - Then Kidnaps Her At Gunpoint, Assaults Her, & Holds A 'Mock Wedding' At Local Church!

[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]

A woman driving home after work last Friday in south Alabama stopped at a convenience store along the city of Mobile’s Dauphin Island Parkway. There, she encountered a man — later identified by police as 37-year-old Roy Lee Clowder (pictured in his mugshot, above) — who asked her for a ride home.

Eventually, the woman gave in, and allowed Clowder to jump in the car with her. But according to cops, that’s when all hell broke loose. The woman being so generous to give him a ride home quickly turned into an awful situation in which she had to fight for her life, withstand a sexual assault, AND suffer through what cops are calling a “mock wedding.”

It all started at about 9:30 p.m. on Friday night when the woman pulled up to a convenience store. According to AL.com and others, she was approached by Clowder, who begged her for a ride. She demurred at first, then eventually relented. However, according to a release sent out by cops to multiple Alabama news outlets, things turned south almost immediately:

“On October 11, 2024, at approximately 9:30 pm, a female/victim was traveling home from work and stopped by a convenience store on Dauphin Island Parkway. A man inside the store approached the victim and asked for a ride home. The victim agreed but once in the parking lot the man produced a gun forcing her to the passenger’s side of the vehicle while he went to the drivers side.”

OMG!

From there, with Clowder at the wheel of the unidentified woman’s car, the pair went on a ride through multiple parts of Mobile. At some point during the ride, cops say Clowder sexually assaulted the woman. And at one point in the night, he even took her to a local church and performed a “mock wedding” on the steps of the house of worship:

“The man has been identified as Roy Lee Clowder. Clowder drove the victim’s car to several locations around DIP [Dauphin Island Parkway] with victim inside. Clowder even went to a local church and forced the victim to participate in a ‘mock’ wedding on the steps outside of the church.”

What. The. F**k?!?!

Cops didn’t reveal which church it was. They did, however, note that the woman was eventually able to notify a friend that she’d been kidnapped. The friend called 911, and Mobile County Sheriff’s Office deputies immediately went looking for the car. As they searched, the woman’s friend began to call her phone. At some point, Clowder heard the calls, became nervous, and decided to let the woman go:

“While Clowder was driving, the victim was able to notify a friend that she had been kidnapped along with her vehicle. The friend called 911 and Mobile County Sheriff’s Office sent Deputies to the area where she was last seen. While Deputies searched the area for victim and vehicle, they continued to call the victim’s phone. After several calls, Clowder decided to release the victim and her vehicle.”

Clowder went straight home from there, apparently, because not long after that, cops arrested him at his home on Texas Street. They eventually booked him into jail on charges of first-degree robbery, first-degree sexual abuse, first-degree kidnapping, resisting arrest, and a probation violation. Per NBC 15 News and others, police believe Clowder was under the influence of narcotics at the time of the incident, too.

Speaking to WKRG News following the announcement of the arrest, Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch said:

“The victim in this case remained calm and was able to communicate her whereabouts to a friend. Because of this, we were able to assist in locating her and getting her out of a very dangerous situation.”

No kidding. We are so glad that the woman was able to get away alive, and without even MORE harm being done than the unimaginable things she already suffered. Ugh.

If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence and would like to learn more about resources, consider checking out https://www.rainn.org/resources.

To learn more about the impact of gun violence, visit https://www.apha.org/topics-and-issues/gun-violence.

[Image via Mobile County Sheriff’s Office]