
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, December 11, 1993                   TAG: 9312110128
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                                LENGTH: Short

NO BOUNTY ON WOMAN'S HEAD

A bounty hunter and a bondsman who apparently mistook a woman for her sister chased the terrified woman into a gas station and put her in handcuffs until police arrived to set her free, she said.

Cynthia Taylor, 26, swore out assault warrants against the bounty hunter, Joseph L. Mack, 26, and the bondsman, Walt J. Zytnick, after the incident Wednesday.

According to Taylor, her mother told her that a man had been watching their house. She went outside, and a man approached her.

Alarmed, she got in her van and backed into the street, where she saw the man with a raised gun.

"I floored the van in reverse," Taylor said. "I lost control and hit the neighbor's car. He was running toward me, and I heard gunshots."

She sped to a nearby gas station and called her mother. As she hung up the phone, the stranger and another man pulled up in a car.

"That's the killer!" she said she screamed. "That's the killer! Get away from me!"

The man with the gun grabbed Taylor, handcuffed her and threw her to the ground, she said.

Someone in the gas station called police, and a squad car arrived as the two men were about to put Taylor into their car.

Taylor said she isn't sure why the men wanted her sister.

by CNB