Steven Henning (WJAR/YouTube).
A man from Rhode Island is going to prison for abducting an 80-year-old woman after tailing her from a Wendy’s, knowing she lived alone and thinking she “would not be missed,” prosecutors report.
Steven Henning, age 54, received a 45-year sentence for kidnapping and assaulting a woman at her residence in Coventry, a Providence suburb, as per court documents. He admitted guilt in June to multiple charges, including robbery, home invasion of a senior, kidnapping, and assault with a dangerous weapon.
Police reported receiving a call shortly after 8:15 a.m. on August 18, 2024, from the Smithfield Police Department — about 30 miles north of Coventry — concerning a potential kidnapping.
Detectives identified Henning as their suspect and pursued him in a high-speed chase upon attempting his arrest. Eventually, they apprehended him.
Prosecutors stated Henning picked the woman at a nearby Wendy’s, trailed her home, broke into her house, and took her captive, as recounted in a courtroom report by local NBC affiliate WJAR. He then forced her into his car trunk, drove her to a forested area in Smithfield, and choked her with a belt. Pretending to be deceased, she was abandoned in the woods but fled to safety at a nearby residence.
The state explained Henning’s motive at Friday’s sentencing.
A prosecutor stated, “He needed to reach Ohio in a vehicle unlikely to be reported stolen, and his means to achieve that, he stated, was to murder someone who would not be missed.”
Once in Ohio, he planned on killing his estranged girlfriend, according to prosecutors. Henning has been arrested some two dozen times in Rhode Island.
“It’s the Steven Hennings of the world about which we warn our children don’t talk to strangers,” the prosecutor said, per WJAR. “And the Steven Hennings of the world are what the elderly think about when they stay at home in solitude instead of venturing out.”
Cops credited the victim for her strength in getting Henning to prison for likely the rest of his life.
“What she went through is the stuff nightmares are made from,” police said. “And yet, she is probably the strongest and bravest person our detectives have ever met. May she breath a little easier knowing this offender will spend the next 45 years behind bars.
