Amber alert kidnapping suspect denied bond in Horry County

The man, who authorities said kidnapped his estranged wife and the couple’s two-year-old daughter from a Loris home, was denied bond Thursday by a county magistrate.

Horry County Police charged 25-year-old Marco Maurice Vaught of North Myrtle Beach, with two counts of kidnapping after police said he kicked in the door of his estranged wife’s home, then took her and their daughter and fled the scene.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and Loris Police worked through the night Saturday and put out the statewide alert about the abduction.

Brunswick County authorities arrested Vaught Saturday and found the victims safe at a home near Shallotte.

Vaught denied the allegations that he kidnapped Evette and their daughter Naima and told the judge Thursday that Evette went willingly and that the two were working their relationship out when police arrested him in Brunswick County.

Vaught told the judge that if he had kidnapped his estranged wife and daughter, he would have run from authorities.

Evette Vaught told the judge that she has spent the past couple years in fear of her life and said that Marco Vaught threatened her life several times; many times she said the threats were made in front of the couple’s children.

A county magistrate denied Vaught bond on the two kidnapping charges Thursday.

Vaught remains jailed at the J. Reuben Long Detention Center awaiting trial on the charges.