Arrest made for rape, kidnapping

Flathead County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a man for an alleged kidnapping and rape Sunday night in Hungry Horse in a scenario very similar to an abduction in Kalispell last week.

Sheriff Mike Meehan said that about 10:45 p.m. Sunday, dispatchers got a 911 call from a distressed woman who said she had been kidnapped and raped.

She said she was walking home from a local tavern when she was approached by two men in a brown-and-tan truck who forced her into the truck, then drove to a remote, wooded area where they assaulted her.

Her cries for help were heard by a neighbor in the area who arranged for the call.

Soon after, a deputy spotted a truck matching the description heading west on U.S. 2 toward Columbia Falls. The subsequent stop led to the arrest of Kasey D. Kehoe, 27, who was alone in the truck.

He was arrested on charges of sexual intercourse without consent, aggravated kidnapping and criminal contempt.

An investigation is continuing to identify and find the other man involved in the alleged assault.

The night of May 14, another woman reported she was abducted by two men in a truck near a convenience store on West Idaho Street in Kalispell. She was driven to Whitefish, where she managed to jump out of the truck and get to a nearby home to call 911 for help.

“We are looking into that,” Meehan said, referring to a possible connection.

Meehan described the incident in Hungry Horse as a “violent sexual assault ... It was a bad one.”

Based on statements Kehoe has made, investigators believe he may be a younger brother of Chevy and Cheyne Kehoe, who became infamous after engaging in a shootout with Ohio law-enforcement officers in 1997.

The shootout was captured on a dashboard camera and the footage was widely broadcast on television. No one was killed in the exchange, but the two brothers became the subjects of a nationwide manhunt.

Chevie and Cheyne Kehoe were the oldest of eight brothers who were raised in eastern Washington, Idaho and, for a time, in Lincoln County, Mont.

The Kehoes had ties to white supremacist groups, including the Aryan Nations at Hayden Lake, Idaho.

After they were apprehended in 1998, the two brothers were convicted of attempted murder, felonious assault and carrying a concealed weapon.

In 2005, Cheyne Kehoe testified against his older brother, helping to convict him of the murders of an Arkansas gun dealer, his wife and 8-year-old daughter. He is serving three life sentences without parole.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com