A Wright City, Missouri man is in custody without bond after police say a night-long domestic assault at a home in Warren County ended with the woman calling 911, a high-speed pursuit on Interstate 70 in which he allegedly drove the wrong way into oncoming traffic at 109 miles per hour, and officers finding him back at the same residence hours later. Christian Cole Thurman, of Wright City, faces a first-degree kidnapping charge in Warren County Circuit Court, court case 26BB-CR00824, with a confined docket hearing scheduled for November 17 at 1 p.m.
The charges are allegations set out in probable-cause statements filed by the Wright City Police Department and the Warrenton Police Department, and Thurman is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty in court. The Warren County Sheriff's Office confirmed to Warren CountyWatch that Thurman is in custody. Judge Jonathan Andrew Yelton ordered him held without bond, finding that no combination of monetary or nonmonetary release conditions would secure the safety of the community or another person.
What the woman told police happened inside the home
According to the probable-cause account reported by Lincoln County Watch, the woman told police the argument started the night before and continued for hours. She said Thurman pinned her to a bed with his body weight so she could not get away, wrapped an arm around her neck and squeezed until she saw stars and nearly lost consciousness, then eased the pressure only to tighten his grip again. She described that pattern continuing intermittently for approximately 20 minutes, with his legs wrapped around her.
When he released her, she said, she slowly regained her senses and tried to flee, but getting off the bed did not mean she could get out of the house. She told investigators Thurman repeatedly blocked the front door and demanded that she stay to talk, and that she feared another assault. Police reported cuts to her face and hands, along with swelling and irritation on her neck, and she was admitted to a hospital for treatment. The allegation that he kept her inside the home is now the basis of the first-degree kidnapping charge.
The woman called 911 after Thurman drove away. When an officer arrived shortly after 3 a.m., she was alone at the home. While officers investigated the alleged assault, a notice went out asking law enforcement to stop and hold Thurman.
The pursuit: 109 mph, a rest area, and the wrong way on I-70
A Warrenton officer spotted Thurman at about 4:20 a.m., stopped at a red light near the Highway 47 overpass, alone in the vehicle. The officer began following him and requested assistance. After Thurman entered eastbound I-70, police say, he accelerated rapidly. The officer activated emergency lights and a siren and measured his speed at 109 mph through a construction zone posted at 55 mph — nearly double the limit on one of Missouri's busiest east-west freight and travel corridors.
The pursuit continued into a rest area, where police say Thurman left the pavement, crossed grass and drove the wrong way through the rest area before returning to the interstate. He then entered the eastbound lanes heading west, driving into oncoming traffic. The pursuing officer described heavy traffic and drivers braking sharply and swerving to avoid a collision. No collision from the pursuit is reported in the probable-cause material reviewed.
The pursuit statement does not explain how that encounter ended. It does establish where police found Thurman later: back at the Wright City residence at approximately 7:22 a.m. During a recorded interview, police said, Thurman admitted fleeing law enforcement and blocking the woman's exit, and acknowledged physical contact during the argument. Police said he also said he did not recall choking her and made statements suggesting she had injured herself. Asked about preventing her from leaving, Thurman said he was not ready for her to go and wanted to finish the conversation, according to the police account.
The charges and what happens next
Thurman is charged with first-degree kidnapping, listed as a Class B felony; second-degree domestic assault, listed as a Class D felony; and aggravated fleeing a stop or detention. The case is filed in Warren County Circuit Court under case number 26BB-CR00824, and a confined docket hearing is scheduled for November 17 at 1 p.m. in the court's Virtual Division 2 Courtroom, according to the Missouri Case.net hearing listing cited in the reporting.
Every account of the assault and the pursuit in this report comes from police probable-cause statements as reported by Lincoln County Watch / Warren CountyWatch. Thurman has not been convicted of anything in this case, no trial has taken place, and he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
Wright City sits in Warren County along the I-70 corridor west of the St. Louis region, a stretch of interstate used daily by long-haul truckers moving between St. Louis, Columbia and Kansas City. A wrong-way vehicle at highway speed in a construction zone is among the most dangerous situations those drivers can face, which is why the pursuit details in the probable-cause statement — the speed, the rest-area crossing and the wrong-way entry — form a central part of the fleeing charge. The November 17 hearing is the next public step, when the court takes up the case with Thurman held without bond.