Osceola Police Department assisted the Des Moines and Indianola police with a kidnapping investigation that took place on Saturday, Dec. 2.
According to the Des Moines Register, 40-year old Jordan Mangum of Indianola has been charged with first-degree kidnapping, violation of a no-contact order and willful injury. Court documents show that Mangum is accused of taking his ex-girlfriend from her home in Des Moines at approximately 2:30 p.m. on Saturday and taking her to his home in Indianola while she was bound blindfolded. Jessica Wheeler, 34, was also charged with first-degree kidnapping Dec. 4.
Mangum allegedly drove his ex-girlfriend around for some time before taking her to an unknown location about 15 minutes from Clarke County Hospital. There, he allegedly assaulted her.
A Facebook post from the Des Moines Police Department stated that the victim was choked, run over by the vehicle and had her throat cut. She was then placed in the back of the vehicle and dropped off in the street outside the Clarke County Hospital, where it took her about five minutes to get inside. She was then taken to a Des Moines Hospital for surgery.
“It was incredibly helpful to have officers down there gathering information for us in real time with the victim and gathering evidence for us,” said Sgt. Paul Parizek, spokesperson for the Des Moines Police Department. “When the victim was transferred up here to the Des Moines hospitals, there wasn’t a lot of work that we needed to do down on that Osceola end.”
Parizek said the inter-agency cooperation of the three police departments also helped with the speed of the investigation, which began at about 9 p.m. on Saturday and continued for nearly 24-hours.
Magnum was arrested on Dec. 3, and is being held on a $1 million cash bond in the Polk County Jail. Wheeler’s involvement has not been stated at this time, but police say evidence indicates that she is a co-conspirator in the case. Bond has not yet been set for Wheeler.