Crime & Safety

Update: Police ID'd Wash U Kidnapping and Robbery Suspect With Phone Records

St. Louis County Police said video surveillance also tracked the suspect from a MetroLink station to the Washington University parking garage where the crime occurred.

St. Louis County Police used phone records and video surveillance cameras at at MetroLink station and Washington University to find a suspect in the kidnapping and knife-point robbery of a woman at a parking garage Aug. 28.

Patch reported earlier that William Cobbins, 22, of the 1600 block of Pine Street in St. Louis, was charged with kidnapping and first-degree robbery.

St. Louis County Police said that Cobbins approached a woman in a Washington University Parking garage about 9:30 p.m. Aug. 28 at 6985 Snow Way Drive, pushed her into the drivers’ seat of her car and got in the back seat.

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Police said Cobbins put a knife up to her lower abdomen and told her to drive into the city of St. Louis, and then had her stop at an ATM machine and had her withdraw money. He used her ATM card to withdraw money two more times totaling $1,500, and had the woman drop him off in the city, according to court documents.

A woman later tried to use the ATM card. Police identified her vehicle and arrested the driver. Police subpoenaed the driver's phone records and identified Cobbins after she called him several times after being released.

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Police said Cobbins was at the Delmar MetroLink station near Washington University just before the kidnapping and robbery. Video surveillance at the MetroLink station and Washington University shows him walking toward the parking garage and confronting the woman at her car, police said in court documents.

Cobbins denied committing the crimes. He is being held in St. Louis County jail. Bond was set at $75,000.

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