Deputies in two southern Colorado counties disabled a kidnapped woman’s vehicle after connecting it to a convenience-store robbery report.
PUEBLO, Colo. — A robbery call at a Colorado City convenience store became a critical link in the rescue of a kidnapped Aurora woman, leading deputies to a moving vehicle, a pursuit across county lines and the arrest of a man now sentenced to 26 years in prison.
The Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office outlined the law enforcement operation after Shane McSwane, 29, pleaded guilty June 12 to second-degree kidnapping and attempted aggravated robbery. The judge imposed consecutive 13-year prison terms. The sentence came more than a year after deputies found McSwane driving Grace Dotson’s car on Interstate 25 with Dotson still inside. Officers used stop sticks and a Pursuit Intervention Technique in Huerfano County to end the flight and remove her safely from the vehicle.
By the time Pueblo County deputies became directly involved, the case had already traveled far beyond where it started. Dotson had witnessed a crash near the Interstate 70 and Interstate 225 interchange in Aurora on May 25, 2025, and stopped to call 911, according to prosecutors. Authorities said McSwane, who was involved in that crash, forced his way into Dotson’s vehicle and kidnapped her. He then drove away, beginning roughly four hours of travel in changing directions as relatives and police tried to understand where she was going.
The first major break described by southern Colorado officials came from a separate reported crime. Pueblo County deputies responded to a robbery at a convenience store in Colorado City. The vehicle used in that incident matched the description of the car taken from Dotson, the sheriff’s office said. That match gave deputies a concrete object to search for on a busy interstate corridor. Officials have not publicly released every investigative step that confirmed the connection, but deputies soon located the vehicle traveling north on Interstate 25 toward Pueblo.
Deputies attempted a traffic stop, but McSwane did not pull over, according to the sheriff’s office. He turned the vehicle around and headed south on the interstate. The refusal to stop created an immediate operational problem: officers needed to end the flight while accounting for Dotson’s presence inside. A pursuit that might otherwise have focused mainly on the fleeing driver also became a moving rescue attempt. Authorities said deputies continued because they knew or believed the kidnapped woman was still in the car and remained at risk.
The southbound route carried the pursuit from Pueblo County toward Huerfano County. Deputies there prepared stop sticks, devices designed to puncture tires as a vehicle crosses them. The deployment worked, deflating the tires, but the car still had to be brought to a controlled stop. A Pueblo County deputy then performed a Pursuit Intervention Technique, in which a patrol vehicle makes contact intended to rotate and stop a fleeing vehicle. Officials said the maneuver succeeded and allowed officers to take McSwane into custody.
Dotson was safely rescued after the stop. The official releases do not describe significant physical injuries from the final maneuver, and they avoid a detailed reconstruction of the contact between the vehicles. The central result was that officers ended the pursuit without losing Dotson inside a vehicle that had traveled from the Denver metropolitan area into southern Colorado. The sheriff’s office credited both counties’ deputies, as well as detectives who investigated the case and prosecutors who later handled the charges.
The rescue was the final stage of an ordeal during which Dotson had limited contact with people outside the car. Prosecutors said McSwane sometimes allowed her to answer telephone calls from worried relatives. Earlier reporting said she sent her mother a message asking for help and that her boyfriend could tell she was unsafe during a conversation. Family members also followed the location of her phone as it moved south on Interstate 25. That information provided some awareness of the route but did not by itself allow them to intervene.
The route illustrates how a crime that began in one city can quickly require decisions by agencies far away from the starting point. Aurora was the site of the crash and abduction. Interstate 25 became the main corridor of travel. A reported robbery in Colorado City brought Pueblo County deputies into the search. The attempted stop and reversal extended the pursuit south, and Huerfano County deputies supplied the tire-deflation equipment that helped slow the vehicle. Pueblo County personnel then completed the stop and arrest.
Those agencies were recognized again at McSwane’s sentencing. Dotson and several members of her family thanked law enforcement officers for saving her life, according to the district attorney’s office. They described the four hours as a nightmare and recalled watching her phone’s location move away from Denver. Their remarks connected the technical parts of the response — vehicle descriptions, radio coordination, stop sticks and a PIT maneuver — to the reason officers were acting: a woman remained confined in the car while her relatives waited for confirmation that she was alive.
The legal resolution followed McSwane’s guilty pleas to two offenses designated as crimes of violence. The district attorney’s office described both as Class 4 felonies. The judge sentenced him to 13 years for kidnapping and another 13 years for attempted aggravated robbery, with the second term to follow the first. Prosecutors said McSwane will be required to serve 85% of the sentence before parole eligibility. Any later decision about release would remain separate from the eligibility date.
Because McSwane pleaded guilty, the state did not have to prove the two charges to a jury, and Dotson did not face a public trial on those counts. The official announcements do not disclose the full terms that led to the plea or provide the judge’s full sentencing findings. They do show that the court treated the conduct as two separately punishable crimes and selected a combined term measured in decades. McSwane was transferred into the state corrections system following the court’s order.
District Attorney Kala Beauvais said Dotson showed strength by speaking in court while McSwane was present. Beauvais also praised her compassion. Dotson and her relatives told the court they hoped McSwane would work to become a better person before he is released someday, according to prosecutors. That statement came alongside, rather than in place of, the 26-year punishment. It reflected the family’s view of what should happen during the sentence, not a denial of the danger officers confronted on the highway.
The sentencing gives the pursuit a final legal outcome. What began with a crash witness stopping in Aurora ended after multiple agencies exchanged information, recognized a vehicle, followed it across county lines and used two separate tactics to halt it. McSwane now stands convicted of kidnapping and attempted aggravated robbery, and Dotson’s rescue remains the defining result of the coordinated response.
Author note: Last updated July 13, 2026.