An Illinois resident faces several charges following an alleged attack on his girlfriend during a drive through Moultrie County last month.
Thomas Andrew Welch, aged 31, was initially charged with aggravated domestic battery, aggravated unlawful restraint, and aggravated kidnapping after the incident, which occurred early last Thursday morning. However, the state’s attorney’s office has since dropped the unlawful restraint charge and added an attempted murder charge, according to a report by WCIA.
The Moultrie County Sheriff’s Office reported receiving a call just before 1 a.m. from a homeowner in Kirksville. The caller stated that a woman, covered in blood, had come to his home seeking help. As deputies made their way to the location, they learned the woman had leapt from a moving vehicle.
Upon arrival, deputies observed a cut on the woman’s forehead. She recounted that she was in the vehicle with Welch, her boyfriend, and his acquaintance, 33-year-old Cody R. Kimery. She explained that after unsuccessfully trying to persuade Welch to let her out due to feeling unsafe, she eventually jumped from the truck while it was moving at approximately 20 miles per hour.
The woman was transported to a hospital for medical attention. Meanwhile, deputies located Welch’s Chevrolet truck, impounded it, and secured a search warrant.
During the search, authorities discovered a dash camera in the truck. Footage from the camera revealed the victim’s attempt to exit the vehicle while it was stationary and showed her being forcibly pulled back inside.
An affidavit says that the incident began just before midnight on December 30. The victim, sitting in the passenger seat, got into a verbal altercation with Welch, and repeatedly asked him to take her home. The altercation escalated, with Welch yelling at the victim and making threats to harm and kill her.
At one point, the victim tried to get out of the truck only to have Welch drag her back inside from his seat and then walk around to the passenger side and shove her back in. That was the incident in which she received the injury to her head. Kimery, the statement said, participated in the efforts to keep her inside.
Police located the victim’s pink scarf at the intersection where that incident took place, and it contained suspected blood and a clump of hair.
Welch got back in the vehicle and continued driving, as the victim repeatedly begged to be let out of the vehicle. At one point, the affidavit says, he told Kimery, “I’m going to have to kill her bro.”
Welch continued driving and was about an hour and a half away from the victim’s home when she jumped out of the moving truck.
At the hospital, she was given staples and stitches for the cut to her head. Doctors said the cut exposed her skull and will result in permanent scarring. She also had bruising to her neck consistent with being choked and swelling to her cheek.
Welch was arrested on Sunday and ordered held without bond the following day. A preliminary hearing is set for Friday.
Kimery was charged with unlawful restraint. He was already in jail, having been arrested in Coles County on Saturday for aggravated battery to a peace officer and possession of methamphetamine. His first court appearance in Moultrie County has not been scheduled.
Welch has a steady stream of arrests dating back to 2008 and including six stints in jail on charges including drugs, burglary, resisting, domestic battery, and aggravated battery.
