Naked newlyweds go on crime spree
MIAMI — Last month as a Georgia couple on their honeymoon went on a bizarre crime spree — kidnapping and raping a woman, police said, and stealing sodas in the buff — they narrowly missed abducting another target: a University of Miami student.
The 20-year-old woman told police she was headed back to her apartment after visiting a nearby 7-Eleven when Timothy Lowe pulled her into a staircase. There, they were joined by Rashada Hurley, wearing pink underwear and a black top.
When Lowe told her the three of them were to get into a vehicle parked on the street, the UM student told police she saw an opening and fled. She recognized the couple four days later when their crime spree made headlines and she called police.
On Wednesday, police added a charge of attempted kidnapping to Lowe and Hurley’s rap sheet, which already includes charges of petit theft, indecent exposure, kidnapping, robbery and sexual battery.
The additional charge came almost a month after the incident, police said, because the UM student left soon after the incident for lengthy vacation. “The victim was going on vacation for a month to Greece,” said Miami Police Detective Yelitza Cedano.
Police didn’t have to go far to find Lowe, 37 and Hurley, 32. Both remain jailed at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional facility after being denied bond during their initial court appearance in July.
The Georgia couple made headlines last month after they were arrested standing naked on a street corner for stealing two sodas from a 7Eleven. It didn’t take police long to link them to a much more brutal, earlier crime.
Late in the afternoon of July 9 — a day before they were arrested and about an hour after their failed attempt to abduct the UM student — police say Lowe and Hurley approached a 28-year-old woman in a Hialeah Publix parking lot. There, Hurley asked for directions. When the woman lowered her window, Hurley smacked her in the head.
She told police she was held at the motel against her will for four hours while she was repeatedly raped by both Lowe and Hurley. She said Lowe even forced her to text her mother and say everything was OK. The woman said she fled the room naked and flagged down a passing motorist.