A Missouri man was arrested on battery charges after threatening to kill his girlfriend and their baby by crashing into a tree on the way back from a wedding.
Police received multiple calls about a woman hanging out of a white sports car yelling for help as it was traveling down the street near Lakeshore Boulevard in Tavares at about 9:13 p.m. Saturday, according to an arrest report from the Tavares Police Department. Other calls referenced a woman running down the street with a baby.
Upon arrival in the area, the officer met with the female victim who explained that she and her boyfriend, 38-year-old Daniel Allen Wurdinger, were visiting from Missouri. They were here for a wedding that took place that night in Leesburg but were staying at a hotel in Orlando. The couple were in a romantic relationship but were not married, and they had a 4.5-month-old baby in common that was in their rental vehicle during the incident, the report said.
The victim advised that prior to the wedding, she was in the changing room with the bride and others in the bridal party. One of the bride’s friends, a male, was also in the room. Wurdinger did not like this, so the victim changed in the bathroom. She thought the disagreement was over as they went on with the wedding festivities, the report said.
Once the wedding was over, Wurdinger was driving back to Orlando with the victim in the passenger seat and the baby in a car seat in the back, the report said. He became angry and threatened the victim, who stated she had never seen him act like that or hit her before. However, Wurdinger drove recklessly, yelled at her, hit her in the face four to five times and smacked her drink out of her hand.
The victim kept asking Wurdinger to pull over so she and the baby could get out, but he refused and kept driving. He was saying that he was going to kill her and the baby by driving them into a tree. The victim yelled for help out of the window. During this, Wurdinger snatched the victim’s phone from her hands as she tried to call for help, the report said.
The victim started to put the car in park while Wurdinger was driving in an attempt to stop the vehicle. They swerved off the road by Mission Avenue, and the victim was able to get out of the car with her baby and start running down the street. At one point, Wurdinger also got out of the car to chase her. Upon seeing witnesses stop to assist, he got back into the car and drove off towards Mount Dora, the report said.
The victim was able to activate the “Find my iPhone” application which allowed Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputies to find her phone in Eustis. The tracker was used to locate the rental vehicle, a white Camero, backed into a dead-end subdivision off of County Road 44 and Orange Avenue. Contact was made with Wurdinger who was then arrested.
Five witnesses corroborated the victim’s story, and some brought her baby diapers, formula and water since everything was in the car. LCSO brought the rental back to her so she could drive back to the hotel in Orlando, the report said.
The North Carolina native was charged with domestic battery, tampering with a victim (deprivation of 911) and false imprisonment. He was transported to the Lake County Jail with bond set at $30,000.
