Canadian woman’s kidnapping, rape story in doubt

Jen Lawson

Thursday, May 8, 2003 | 11:15 a.m.

A city councilwoman from Canada who had been missing for three days was found wandering outside Treasure Island late Tuesday, alleging she had been kidnapped in Montana and raped, Metro Police said.

But Darlene Heatherington, 39, an alderwoman in the town of Lethbridge, Alberta, refused to give a statement to Metro Police and became combative when personnel at University Medical Center tried to examine her, Officer Jose Montoya said.

"She told our officers she had been kidnapped from Great Falls, Montana, on May 3 and was brought to Las Vegas against her will," Montoya said.

Heatherington said her alleged abductor "gave her something," but police have no details about what the substance might have been, Montoya said.

Montoya said security officers at Treasure Island called Metro about 10:40 p.m. to report "a distraught female in the valet area."

But when officers arrived, Montoya said, "she became uncooperative and argumentative and wouldn't give us any specific information."

She didn't give police a description of her attacker, nor did she say how long she had been in Las Vegas. Lt. Jeff Carlson of Metro's sexual assault unit said Heatherington was not checked into the Treasure Island.

"She said she was extremely tired and wanted to sleep," Montoya said. "But she did say she wanted to press charges."

Carlson said detectives expected to do a more thorough interview Wednesday, but the woman left town.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Heatherington and her husband Dave -- who had traveled to Las Vegas when he got word his wife had surfaced -- flew in a chartered airplane to Great Falls to speak to detectives there, according to the Great Falls Tribune.

After that, she is expected to go home to Canada, Carlson said.

"We'll try to contact her," he said, adding that Metro detectives have been exchanging information with police in Great Falls.

Police in Great Falls said Tuesday that abduction or any other sort of foul play appeared to be the least likely scenario, and that Heatherington might have had a bicycle accident or chose to disappear.

Dave Heatherington said his wife was in good spirits when he spoke to her by phone Saturday morning, and she said she was looking forward to seeing him and their children, ages 10, 8 and 4.

"I have no idea what the reason would be for her not to want to come home," he told the Canadian press.

Heatherington went to Great Falls on Thursday as part of a Lethbridge delegation that was invited to meet with local government officials.

She called her husband Saturday morning to say she decided to spend the day in Great Falls because she planned to meet with a city representative, tour a museum and shop, according to the Canadian press. She said she would be home Saturday night, and asked her husband to tape her daughter's music recital.

Heatherington then called the city representative she planned to meet with and cancelled their appointment, saying she needed to go home to attend her daughter's recital.

Then she bought a bicycle at a pawnshop and told an employee she planned to take a ride along River's Edge Trail, a popular path beside the Missouri River.

When she didn't return Saturday night, her husband called police and a large-scale search was launched. Police found her rented Ford Focus in the parking lot of the Great Falls civic center on Sunday. Her purse, shopping bags and other belongings were locked inside. Police found her car keys near one of the wheels.

The case is being extensively covered by the Canadian press, and many Canadian newspaper, radio and television reporters flooded into Great Falls on Monday, officials said.