Search for Alisa Summers, Florida mom seen forced into car, bound and screaming
TAMPA, Fla. -- The search is continuing for a man suspected of kidnapping his estranged wife from a Tampa parking lot over the weekend, authorities said Monday, adding the missing woman is also being sought.
Witnesses told Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputies that they saw a screaming woman - her hands tied behind her back - being forced into her SUV on Saturday night in the parking lot of a pharmacy.
The vehicle drove away and deputies said Alisa Summers, 37, remained missing Monday morning.
In a statement, sheriff’s officials said the woman didn’t return from going to visit Trevor Steven Summers, 39, to talk about their marriage. They are separated and have injunctions against each other, according to court records.
“Obviously we’re very concerned for our client,” the wife’s divorce attorney Steven Glaros told the Tampa Bay Times. “She’s expressed lots of fear of her husband.”
The couple married in 2001. They’re now separated and have five children - ages 3 to 14 - who live with Trevor Summers’ father, sheriff’s officials said.
Trevor Summers pleaded guilty to a wire fraud and conspiracy scheme in Philadelphia federal court last September, according to the Times.
A jury also convicted his co-defendant, another man, on similar charges, according to the paper. It said federal prosecutors accused them of falsely claiming to hold patents on straws that could be printed with safe ink and spending $1 million on machines to print those straws. But officials said it was a scheme to defraud investors out of at least $345,000, according to the report.
Trevor Summers is scheduled for sentencing Wednesday in Philadelphia, the report added.
The Times reported that it was after Summers pleaded guilty that his life in Florida began to unravel.
On Oct. 31 his wife asked a Hillsborough County judge for a domestic violence injunction, but it was dismissed on Nov. 10. A month later she filed for divorce. Court records show Alisa Summers filed for another protective order on Feb. 21. In it she claimed that during a meeting at Trevor Summer’s home to discuss a divorce settlement, he pulled a knife on her, threatened to bind her with duct tape and rope, and held her against her will for several hours. She called 911 and waited on deputies at a gas station, but no arrest was made.
On Feb. 22, he filed for a protective order against his wife, claiming the previous day’s allegations against him were fabricated. He accused her of angrily pushing their 12-year-old son into a corner.
Sheriff’s officials confirmed Alisa Summers called for help Feb. 21. An arrest wasn’t made because all deputies had to go on were the couple’s conflicting statements. The case is still under investigation.
Glaros, the divorce attorney, said he’s surprised to hear that his client would visit her husband because she was so scared of him. In fact, she didn’t attend the injunction hearing because of her fears.
He also said the divorce proceedings were on hold until Summers was sentenced in federal court. He faces up to four years in federal prison.
Hope Lefeber, Summers’ attorney in the federal case, told the Times she was shocked to hear about the latest allegations. If proven true, she said they could impact his federal sentence.
“I know he always wanted to work out his marriage,” she said.
Police say the car, which is registered to Alisa Summers, is a dark blue Saturn Outlook with Florida tag GLHM32. Anyone with information is asked to call the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s at 813-247-8200.
