Bethany Arceneaux and the father of her 2-year-old child were set to meet up in order for Arceneaux to pick up her son. Though Arceneaux had a protection order against her son’s father, Scott Thomas, the pair shared custody. According to Arceneaux, Thomas attempted to reach out for a hug. Arceneaux rebuffed his displays of affection.
Thomas attempted to unbuckle their son from the car seat in the back of Arceneaux’s car, but Arceneaux was able to flee the scene. Thomas followed closely behind Arceneaux, until she finally pulled over in front of a daycare center and attempted to flee with her son on foot.
Thomas grabbed Arceneaux and pulled her and their son into his car. Arceneaux was heard screaming “Call the cops!” as a witness was able to pull the child out of the car, just before Thomas sped away.
Holding tight to Arceneaux’s hair, Thomas drove to a secluded sugar cane field in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana. Arceneaux could hear the police searching through the field, as Thomas forced her to duck and dodge the search party. By the time Thomas dragged her into an abandoned home near the field she had lost her shoes and her clothes and been nearly torn off.
There was a phone inside the home and Thomas made several phone calls, before allowing Arceneaux to call her sister. Thomas then disabled the phone.
For three days Arceneaux was held inside the home. He forced her to sleep next to him with a knife held to her throat on a dirty mattress with only a soiled carpet as a blanket. Arceneaux could hear police inching closer to the house. Thomas told her that ‘You better hope, you better hope that … them cops don’t come this way. You better hope they don’t come this way. Cause when they do Ima kill you,'” according to an article published by The Advertiser.
During this time Arceneaux made several escape attempts, including throwing a piece of wood through a bathroom window and hitting Thomas on the head with an old curtain rod. Neither of these attempts were successful and only made Thomas angry.
Meanwhile outside, search parties continued to search the sugar cane field where they found Acreneaux’s shoes and scraps of her tattered clothing. It wasn’t until her family decided to conduct a search of their own that they found the dilapidated home Acreneaux had been held captive.
With his gun locked and loaded, Acreneaux’s cousin Marcus Arceneaux approached the front door. Inside Thomas told Acreneaux “It about to be that time. We about to die.”
Marcus Arceneaux kicked in the door in time to find Thomas standing over his cousin and stabbing her. It took three shots, but Thomas was dead and the daring rescue mission was a success.
Acreneaux was taken to a hospital for the stab wounds she sustained during the attack. Marcus Arceneaux was forced to stand before a grand jury for the shooting death of Scott Thomas, but they later found him not guilty on grounds of justifiable homicide.