The woman who Antwaan Deandre Clanton allegedly raped the afternoon of July 15 thought he was going to kill her.

That's why during the ensuing kidnapping and then rape in a undisclosed location in Halifax County she made no sound or attempt to fight him, Captain Andy Jackson of the Roanoke Rapids Police Department said today..

The victim, who was traveling from Massachusetts to Florida, stopped on the campus of Halifax Regional Medical Center to rest. By campus, Jackson said it was not in the main parking lot area but in one of the clinic areas which offers shade.

As she rested, a man later identified as Clanton, 38, of Weldon, came up and grabbed her by the throat and said he would kill her if she screamed or said one word, Jackson said. Bruises and abrasions consistent with that alleged act were observed on the victim, the captain said.

Jackson said the victim's actions are natural in situations like that. “A lot of people who are kidnapped avoid eye contact and are not inclined to put up a lot of resistance in fear they will be murdered.”

Clanton allegedly forced the victim in the backseat of her car and drove off. Jackson said it was not clear where her cell phone, which she would later use to call 911, was located.

Not being from the area, the victim was unaware of where she was, but did observe a Halifax Fire District sign, a path and railroad tracks at the location where she was allegedly raped, according to Jackson.

Following the alleged rape, Clanton drove to an area the victim described as a “five story hotel in the middle of nowhere,” and got out of the car. That location is believed to be the Carolina Crossroads area.

When Clanton left the victim immediately called 911 and a dispatcher talked her through where to go. “She was lost, petrified. She wanted to go somewhere safe, anywhere she felt safe and somewhere that someone could help her. She wound up at Weldon city hall,” Jackson said.

From there Weldon police contacted Roanoke Rapids police, who charged Clanton with the rape the following Monday. Clanton was spotted by the Halifax County Sheriff's Office later that evening on Country Club Road in Weldon and, after a brief chase, was arrested in a break-in.

The Clanton story has made headlines across the state because before the alleged rape and the later breaking and entering, he was mistakenly released from Odom prison outside Jackson after a case manager failed to notice a pending charge that would have kept him in prison.