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Rock County deputies help with kidnapping arrest

JANESVILLE — Rock County sheriff’s deputies played a key role in the arrest of a man suspected of kidnapping a woman at knifepoint in McFarland and leading police on a chase down Interstate 90/39.

Eldon G. Weinda, 33, was arrested at 10 a.m. Wednesday along I-90/39 near Beloit after stop sticks were used to deflate the tires of the car he was driving, Rock County officials said. The woman he is accused of kidnapping in a home invasion an hour earlier was rescued.

The incident started as a domestic dispute, according to the Dane County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators said the abducted 23-year-old woman was Weinda's girlfriend and suffered minor injuries.

Dane County officials said Weinda was a Dane County Jail inmate released an hour before the kidnapping to search for a job. Officials said he was supposed to return to jail when he kidnapped the woman.

Two men inside the home reported the incident, Dane County officials said.

According to the Rock County Sheriff’s Office:

Rock County deputies were asked to help the Dane County Sheriff’s Office stop a Chevrolet Lumina traveling south on the Interstate after the kidnapping was reported.

Rock County deputies placed stop sticks on the Interstate south of Highway 14. The suspect drove over the sticks, deflating the front driver’s tire and damaging the rear tire.

The car approached a second set of stop sticks and veered across the median into oncoming traffic. He then continued down the Interstate at 60 mph.

The driver later crossed the median again and drove up an onramp against traffic. He then went back on the Interstate. He traveled several miles on at least one of the vehicle’s front rims.

A Rock County deputy attempted to block the road. The driver steered around the squad car.

The Beloit Police Department then placed stop sticks across the Interstate, and the driver crossed the median. He got stuck in the median, which was full of water.

The driver was arrested at gunpoint.

Weinda faces several criminal charges in Rock County, McFarland and Dane County.