A traffic stop in Montecito late Tuesday night led to the discovery of a kidnapping in progress when Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s deputies found a man forcing a woman to drive an RV against her will, allegedly after the man had threatened the woman and her child with two knives and a handgun, according to a statement from Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Raquel Zick.
The incident began shortly before 11 p.m. when law enforcement pulled over the RV, which was headed southbound on Highway 101 near Olive Mill Road, after deputies saw that the vehicle was “unsafe” and being driven with its pop-out sections extended.
When the deputy on scene approached the RV, he saw what appeared to be “an ongoing domestic dispute,” Zick said.
On further investigation, deputies said that they discovered a “kidnapping in progress,” in which the passenger, 34-year-old Matthew Parsadayan of Newport Beach, had reportedly forced the woman to drive from Highway 154 through Santa Barbara to Orange County. The woman’s child was also inside the vehicle.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, Parsadayan had allegedly “threatened the victim with two knives, put his arms around her neck, and fired a handgun out of the window” before the vehicle had been pulled over.
“The victim, in fear for her life and for her infant who was also in the vehicle, was attempting to comply with Parsadayan’s commands when the RV was stopped by the deputy,” Zick said.
Deputies searched the vehicle and found a Glock pistol and one spent nine-millimeter casing.
Parsadayan was placed under arrest and charged with several felonies, including kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm, discharge of a firearm with gross negligence, child cruelty, and kidnapping a child. According to jail records, he is still in custody at Santa Barbara County’s Main Jail on a bail of $1 million.
