Abduction suspect to appear in court

The final suspect involved in the kidnapping and robbery of a University of Toledo international student is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing.

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Blake Long, 21, will appear in Bowling Green Municipal Court at 1 p.m on Sept. 11.

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The other three suspects, Brittany Long, 21, Hui Zang, 23, and Nicholas Martinez, 19, have been arraigned said BG Deputy Chief Tony Hetrick.

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The victim is remaining anonymous because the kidnappers threatened to kill him if he went to the police.

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This case stems from an event that allegedly occurred in August when the victim was on an online Chinese chat room called ‘QQ.’ The victim told police a woman, Zang, posed as someone from UT in order to gain his trust and invited him to go to Cedar Point. They made plans to pick him up Aug. 18.

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According to Hetrick, the victim told police Brittany Long was the driver of the car. Passengers included Zang and Brittany’s brother, Blake Long. After the victim got into the car, they drove to Toledo to pick up Martinez. From there they drove to BG.

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“At that point [the victim] was becoming concerned because that wasn’t the way to Cedar Point as far as he knew,” Hetrick said.

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The four suspects took him to a vacant house located on 131 Palmer in BG where Blake Long was said to have been to have been painting for a contractor.

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“He’d actually had some items stolen while he was working there,” Hetrick said. “He made that police report with us and made a request for extra patrol at that residence, so that’s how we connected Blake Long to this incident – to that house.”

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The victim told police he was then taken to the basement of the house where he was robbed at knifepoint of his cell phone and wallet.

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He was held while other suspects took his belongings to local businesses in an effort to secure money. Police received a report that evening from Falcon Food Mart on South Main in BG of a suspicious individual trying to use a credit card of an Asian person.

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“Obviously, he was not Asian, and we believe that to be Nicholas Martinez, who was in the store trying to use this card,” Hetrick said. “They asked him for I.D., at which point he left.”

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The suspects then allegedly took the victim to an Econo Lodge in Holland, Ohio, during which time Zang conversed with the victim in Chinese and told him she was also a kidnapped victim, which was later proven false.

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The group attempted to contact the victim’s family in China to obtain ransom for his release.

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Hetrick said the kidnapper’s motives were monetary. After a ransom was unable to be obtained, they returned the victim to his place of residence and threatened to kill him.

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Brittany Long was the first to be arraigned at BG Municipal Court Aug. 20 and was booked at the Wood County Jail that night.

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Zang turned herself in Aug. 26, Blake Long turned himself in Aug. 29 and Martinez turned himself in Sept. 3 at BG Municipal Court. All were charged with kidnapping and aggravated robbery, and released after agreeing to appear in court.

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“It kind of broke this case open when we discovered where he was taken up in Holland, at the Econo Lodge,” Hetrick said. “And Brittany Long had used her I.D. to secure the room…We were able to work kind of backwards from her.”

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Hetrick said more preliminary hearings will be held in the future before a trial can take place.

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