POWHATAN, Va. -- A Powhatan County woman is speaking out after she said she was followed for miles, through two counties, by a suspicious man. Kayla Miller, 21, said the December 9 scare was one should would not soon forget. It started that night at Kim’s Deli, at the intersection of Route 522 and 711 in Powhatan, as Kayla pumped gas. She said a man pulled up next to her car and blocked her in.
"He pulled up within a couple inches of my car," Miller said. "He pulled up right next to me around the front of my car and the whole time he was looking at me. He kind of looked me up and down and gestured like come here and parked off to the side."
The man, who Kayla said drove a black Escalade, waited for her to fill up and then followed her more than six miles across county lines into Goochland. She said he tried to get her attention at every stop.
"I watched him out of my rear view and he pulled up behind me, followed me all the way to the stop light and gestured again and I ignored him," Miller said. "It was scary. I was flying. I was going at least 70 and he was right on my tail."
When Kayla realized she wasn’t going to lose him, she pulled into a shopping center off 522 in Goochland. There, she said she walked into the Food Lion grocery store to get help. She said she was unsuccessful and when she left the store, she saw the Escalade parked out front.
"He followed me to my car trying to engage me," Miller said. "He pulled up next to me and kept trying to get me to get out. He tried to block my car in when I was reversing, so I gunned it. I was terrified."
It was then, Kayla called her family and 911. A deputy met her back at the Food Lion in Goochland, but before he got there, the suspect drove off.
"Of course we don’t know his motivations or anything but we can assume they probably weren’t good," Goochland County Sheriff Jim Agnew said. "It’s very important to pay attention to your surroundings and when they are scared do what this young lady did, call, go to a well-lit place that is occupied by the public."
Powhatan County investigators pulled the video from Kim's Deli where Kayla was first approached, but deemed the quality too poor to make anything out. Goochland Sheriff Agnew did call her a credible witness.
"If that guy is a predator, I don’t want anyone else to go through that and I don’t want anyone else to get hurt. I just want people to be aware of what’s going on," Miller said.
