Man faces kidnapping charge after wife is taken hostage

Schools locked down until authorities found Claremont man

Friday, Jan. 5, 2007

By Marcie Young
Charlotte Observer Staff Writer

A Claremont man was charged Thursday with kidnapping after, authorities said, he took his wife hostage and threatened to kill her and himself.

Joey Smith, 44, will likely face other charges after authorities have completed their investigation, said Maj. Coy Reid of the Catawba County Sheriff's Office.

Shortly after 9 a.m. Thursday, a caller told county dispatchers that Smith was planning to kill his wife before committing suicide, Reid said. The caller was neither Smith nor his wife, but Reid would not say who it was. He said late Thursday that he did not know the wife's name.

Reid said deputies found Smith's and his wife's cars parked out front of Smith's home on Setzer Street in Claremont. When no one answered the door, deputies broke into the house and found it empty, Reid said.

Officers began searching property around the home and were able to contact Smith on his cell phone, Reid said.

Smith told authorities that he had already killed his wife, Reid said, and the Sheriff's Office dispatched a team of officers from the Maiden, Newton and Conover police departments, a Hickory Police Department K-9 team, and a Highway Patrol helicopter.

Nearby Bunker Hill High School and Riverbend Middle School were locked down for most of the morning, Reid said.

The schools are "not too far from the wooded area (behind Smith's home)," Reid said. "We didn't want to take a chance of him coming up from there and going into a school."

Troopers in the helicopter spotted Smith waving a pistol in the woods, Reid said, and officers on the ground tackled him. His wife was standing about two feet from him and was not badly injured. She was treated at a local hospital, Reid said.

Smith was being held Thursday afternoon at the Catawba County jail.


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