Abduction was long-planned, authorities say

Police said Mark Herbert Warren meticulously planned the kidnapping for months, leaving copious notes detailing the crime and outfitting his van with a homemade coffin-like crate with a ventilation system and a mattress.

Warren took action Wednesday, according to police, allegedly firing a stun gun to kidnap a 57-year-old Riverside woman from her home at noon.

He left a ransom note for the woman’s husband and drove to a remote part of nearby Corona while he waited for his demands to be met.

A neighbor spotted Warren and his white Chevy van in an area where cars seldom park and notified Riverside County sheriff’s deputies.

They arrived about 7 p.m. to find Warren standing beside the van and discovered the woman in the crate with a black hood pulled tightly over her head, Riverside Police Det. Rick Cobb said at a news conference Friday.

The crate included a twin-size mattress, a hinged lock and small fans that were supposed to provide air, Cobb said.

It was insulated in an attempt at sound-proofing.

“In my 17 years on the job, I’ve never seen something this bone-chilling,” Cobb said.

The woman was treated for dehydration and bruises and released.

The alleged kidnapping was supposed to be the start of a campaign of abduction, authorities said.

They also found in Warren’s Victorville home, at a Riverside motel room and in his van personal information about 15 other Southern California couples he planned to target, each time kidnapping someone richer and escalating his ransom demands, said Riverside Police spokesman Steven Frasher.

Frasher said the list included the owner of a car dealership and a real estate developer, but he declined to give names or specific locations.

The targets had no common ties, and police alerted some of them after Warren was arrested, Cobb said.

Warren, 47, did not appear to have a criminal record.

He had no connection with the woman he allegedly kidnapped, police said.

Authorities would not release her name and limited the details they released.

After allegedly taking the woman from her home, Warren forced her to call her husband and tell him to return home, Cobb said.

Her husband then found the note threatening his wife if he reported the kidnapping to police.

The husband, a prominent local businessman, considered paying the ransom, but a family friend he confided in notified police Wednesday afternoon, Frasher said.

“His instructions said don’t call the police, and it’s understandable that he didn’t, considering the duress he was under,” Frasher said. “But a friend called police, which was actually the right thing to do.”

Authorities declined to say how much ransom was demanded.

“At this time, we do not know if there are other kidnappings in the past [by Warren] where the victims were returned and the police were never notified,” Cobb said.

Warren is being held without bail. His arraignment is scheduled for April 5.

Prosecutors will seek life imprisonment without parole for Warren, who is charged with kidnapping for the purpose of ransom with bodily harm, residential burglary and assault with a deadly weapon, according to Riverside County Assistant Dist. Atty. Sara L. Danville.

“Anyone who commits this type of crime in Riverside County deserves nothing less,” Danville said. “I don’t want to call anything a slam dunk, but the evidence in the case is insurmountable.”

jonathan.abrams@latimes.com