How a Kidnapped Conn. Lawyer Managed to Escape
A Hartford, Conn., lawyer held hostage by her husband for more than nine hours on Tuesday managed to escape by unscrewing an eyebolt on a basement wall to which she was handcuffed.
Lawyer Nancy Tyler told The Day of New London that she did not expect to survive the kidnapping by her ex-husband, Richard Shenkman. At one point, he threatened to kill her because police had sent a robotic device used in hostage negotiations to the scene. “I truly don’t know why he didn’t kill me,” Tyler told the newspaper. ”I was lying against the wall thinking, ‘I’m going to let him do it.’ ”
Tyler, 57, is a medical malpractice defense lawyer with the law firm of O’Brien, Tanski and Young. Shenkman, a former ad executive, had abducted Tyler in the parking lot of her workplace on the day she planned to attend a contempt hearing on Shenkman’s failure to turn over a house awarded in their three-year divorce litigation.
Tyler told The Day that her ex-husband took her to the home, locked the garage and barricaded the kitchen door with a steel bar. “He put me in a chair, put me in handcuffs and explained to me that the house was wired with explosives,” she said. “He said he wasn’t fooling around and that if it didn’t go well he would kill me.”
Judge Jorge Simon, who presided over the couple’s divorce, came to the scene after Shenkman demanded that he remarry the couple, Tyler told The Day. Police also obtained a marriage license from City Hall in response to Shenkman’s demands.
Shenkman moved Tyler to the basement after police sent the robotic device to the home. He left to investigate a noise, giving Tyler the time to unscrew the bolt and escape. Soon after, the home became engulfed in flames.
Shenkman was placed on suicide watch at his arraignment, the Associated Press reports. He is the brother of Mark Shenkman, president of the large money management firm Shenkman Capital Management, according to AP.
The Day published a photo of Tyler at this link (PDF).
