{"id":980588,"date":"2026-08-04T18:21:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T18:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/980588\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T18:21:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T18:21:21","slug":"fort-worth-kidnapping-suspect-arrested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/980588\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Worth Kidnapping Suspect Arrested"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fort Worth police have arrested a suspect they believe is connected to multiple attempted kidnappings in recent weeks, including the attack on a 63-year-old woman outside a Dollar Tree store last week.<\/p>\n

Investigators say the suspect is linked<\/a> to at least two attempted kidnappings that occurred on consecutive days near Fort Worth\u2019s Cultural District and may have been involved in an earlier incident this month.<\/p>\n

Suspect Arrested After Dollar Tree Attack<\/p>\n

According to the Fort Worth Police Department, officers arrested the suspect following an attempted kidnapping on July 30 at a Dollar Tree located at 367 Carroll St<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The case is being investigated by the department\u2019s Major Case Unit. The suspect is being held<\/a> at the Tarrant County Jail while the investigation continues.<\/p>\n

Authorities initially did not identify the suspect or announce formal charges, citing the active investigation. However, subsequent court records identified the suspect as Johntay Burgess<\/strong>, who has been charged with attempted kidnapping<\/strong> as well as additional charges that include assaulting an officer<\/strong> and indecent exposure<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Investigators Link Multiple Incidents<\/p>\n

Police believe the same suspect attempted to kidnap another person outside Salsa Lim\u00f3n, located at 925 University Drive<\/a>, on July 29 \u2014 just one day before the Dollar Tree incident.<\/p>\n

Investigators also said<\/a> the suspect had previously been arrested on July 10 in connection with a similar offense.<\/p>\n

Court documents indicate a Tarrant County grand jury has indicted Burgess in connection with at least one of the alleged kidnapping attempts.<\/p>\n

Victim\u2019s Family Describes Attack<\/p>\n

The July 30 victim, 63-year-old Eloise Montanez, told family members she was attacked after finishing work and locking up the Dollar Tree store.<\/p>\n

According to her daughter, Ana Cervantes, Montanez turned around when someone approached from behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe covered her face, her mouth, and wrapped his arm around her legs and tried to carry her,\u201d Cervantes said while translating her mother\u2019s account, NBC 5 DFW reported.<\/p>\n

The attack was interrupted when Montanez\u2019s husband arrived to pick her up from work and saw the struggle unfolding. He rushed to help, causing the suspect to flee before police later arrested him.<\/p>\n

Cervantes said her mother was shaken by the ordeal but grateful to have survived.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was scared. She didn\u2019t know what was going on,\u201d Cervantes said.<\/p>\n

She also questioned how many similar incidents would have to occur before the suspect was stopped.<\/p>\n

Investigation Remains Active<\/p>\n

Fort Worth police have not said whether they believe there are additional victims or if more charges could be filed. The department said the investigation remains active, and authorities have not released further details.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information related to the attempted kidnappings is encouraged to contact the Fort Worth Police Department.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fort Worth police have arrested a suspect they believe is connected to multiple attempted kidnappings in recent weeks,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":980589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,141892,41534,7371,8902,7372,393506,393507,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-980588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-america","tag-attempted-kidnapping","tag-dollar-tree","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-police-department","tag-fortworth","tag-johntay-burgess","tag-salsa-limon","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117038631274829694","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=980588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/980589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=980588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=980588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=980588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}