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NANTICOKE — Samara Derwin, the teenage girl who was taken hostage by ex-boyfriend Jordan Oliver on Sunday, spoke out about the ordeal that ended with Oliver being shot to death by a state trooper.
“I want to say something, because people are making up all these stories,” Derwin said in an interview with the Times Leader.
Samara, 15, spoke with a reporter in the presence of her parents, Kathleen Minsavage and Michael Derwin, who is a Nanticoke police officer.
The Times Leader’s policy is normally not to identify victims of sexual assaults. We are publishing the details of Samara’s account, including allegations that Oliver, 20, coerced her into sex during the kidnapping, because Samara and her parents spoke freely, and because she has openly been identified by police as the individual kidnapped by Oliver.
All three family members said that contrary to what has been alleged on social media, Michael Derwin was not on duty or involved in a professional capacity with Sunday’s incident.
Samara said she had been in an on-again, off-again relationship with Oliver for more than a year. They were not together at the time of Sunday’s incident, she and her mother said, but Oliver had attempted to contact Samara on Saturday.
“Just the other day, Samara received a call and it was him. She hung up and he called again,” Minsavage said.
Details about the kidnapping, chase and shooting are reported elsewhere in today’s Times Leader, which also includes an interview with Oliver’s father, Sean.
Acting Nanticoke Police Chief Robert Lehman did not return calls from a reporter on Monday and was not in the office when the Times Leader visited.
State Police, meanwhile, referred questions about the case to Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis, who responded only that no media statement was forthcoming on Monday.
PFA, abusive behavior
Samara said she and her mother had taken out a restraining order against Oliver — who had previous orders taken out against him by other women — and that he violated the order multiple times. Those cases are also reported on elsewhere in today’s edition.
“When I got the PFA (protection from abuse order), he would call me, tell me that he was going to kill me and kill my family,” Samara said.
Court records show the PFA was filed on Samara’s behalf in May by Minsavage.
“He had begun to get obsessive and abusive,” Minsavage said. “She finally let me intervene. He was supposed to go and get mental health treatments and stay away from her for three years.
“We were okay with as long as he got the treatment, he wouldn’t have to do the full time,” Minsavage added.
The PFA alleges that Oliver struck Samara in the head several times in an argument on May 6. It also alleges that he threatened to kill Samara if she sought a PFA against him.
Incident at high school
Samara said that Oliver had tracked her down at Greater Nanticoke High School on Sunday afternoon via a friend. He got into a car with her and her friends, at which point he pulled the knife and held it to her throat.
“When the police showed up, he put the knife to my throat and said that if they got any closer, he would kill me,” Samara said.
Oliver walked Samara down to the football field at knifepoint, she said, where the officers attempted to take him into custody. She said they placing her in the back of a Nanticoke Police SUV while officers patted Oliver down.
But Oliver became violent, Samara said, and pepper sprayed an officer in a struggle.
According to court documents an officer’s Taser was deployed, but it had no effect on Oliver, who kept struggling.
Oliver was able to break free and get into the open door of a police vehicle where Samara was being held.
He drove off in the SUV with Derwin inside at about 3:20 p.m.
During his escape from custody, Oliver was shot in the leg by police. Samara said he made her bandage him up.
“He was complaining that he’d been shot, and that he had pepper spray in his eyes,” Samara said. “He made me drive the car.”
Sexual assault alleged
As time wore on, Oliver threatened Samara and coerced her into having sex with him, under the threat of death, she said.
“He wasn’t being mean until I didn’t want to have sex with him or I didn’t want to kiss him, then he said ‘I guess you want to die,’” she said.
“Then he had sex with me, but I didn’t want to have sex with him.”
According to Samara, they had stopped in the woods and were waiting for a friend to come pick them up. The friend was supposed to hide Oliver away while the police were looking for him.
“I asked him if I could go home, but he said that I was coming with him,” Samara said. “I couldn’t run, because he would’ve gotten me.”
Police issued a BOLO, or be-on-the-lookout order for Oliver and the SUV. Later Sunday night they also issued an Amber Alert for Samara.
Troopers tracked them to a wooded area of Hanover Township near Warrior Run, and eventually converged on the scene.
“He [Oliver] told the troopers that if they came any closer, he would shoot me,” Samara said. “I don’t even think he had a gun on him, but he was acting as if he did.”
Samara says the she told Oliver to let him go or else he would die, to which Oliver allegedly replied, “I want to die.”
Oliver and a trooper then got into an argument, Samara said, at which time he was shot and killed. She was freed unharmed.
“He was mentally ill, he needed help,” she said. “I didn’t want him to die.”
