By Janice Morse
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Moore

Powers

OXFORD - Heidi Moore, who is missing, reported that a former co-worker, John R. Powers Jr., tried to kidnap her from her apartment on Nov. 2.

"He had a knife and (duct) tape with him and he told me he was there to kidnap me," Moore, 20, said ij a court document seeking a restraining order against Powers, 45. "I asked him not to take me and told him I didn't want to go. ... I convinced him to leave."

A Butler County judge granted a temporary protection order on Nov. 4, a week before both Moore and Powers vanished.

On Thursday, police said they had warrants for Powers' arrest on charges of kidnapping, menacing by stalking in connection with the disappearance of Moore - a 2001 Talawanda High School graduate - and also theft of $7,000 from a Dairy Mart where he had worked.

On Tuesday, Moore had gone to the Oxford Inn to see Powers, police said, and the pair left behind indications that Moore had forcibly been removed from Powers' rented room there.

Police in Miamisburg near Dayton, Ohio, found Powers' abandoned vehicle Wednesday. He is now believed to be driving a silver 2004 Nissan Sentra, which is overdue for return to a Miamisburg car-rental company. Police are still looking for that car, bearing Ohio license plate EM63QB. Police describe Powers as armed and dangerous.

Anyone with information is asked to call Oxford police at 524-5256 or the FBI at 421-4310.

E-mail jmorse@enquirer.com