Man apprehended in Larch Mountain kidnapping

Clark County sheriff’s deputies have apprehended a suspect in an August kidnapping and robbery of a woman on Larch Mountain.

Robert “House” J. Tuttle, 31, was arrested Friday on a bench warrant and appeared Tuesday in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of first-degree kidnapping, first-degree robbery and intimidating a witness. He is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges Jan. 28. Judge Rich Melnick held Tuttle on $250,000 bail and appointed Vancouver attorney Neil Cane to defend him.

A co-defendant in the case, Summer E. Long, 35, of Brush Prairie was arrested Nov. 1. She is scheduled to be tried March 3 on the same charges.

Tuttle and Long are accused of kidnapping a 28-year-old woman, whom they knew, at about 2:30 a.m. Aug. 24 and driving her to the top of Larch Mountain. Long took away her cellphone, according to a court affidavit. Tuttle and Long accused her of being a police informant in a drug and firearm investigation involving Tuttle and a separate drug investigation involving a man named Robert Allison, the affidavit stated. Tuttle and Long then assaulted her, including punching her in the head, the victim told sheriff’s investigators.

They told her they drove her to the remote location so “nobody could hear her scream,” the victim said in the affidavit.

The woman said she was able to escape and hid in the woods until daylight. She said she was afraid that Tuttle and Long would find her and kill her. She walked more than nine miles before she found a residence where she could seek help, according to the affidavit.

Long told a sheriff’s detective that she often called Tuttle to do “a man’s job.” Asked what that meant, Long replied, “Go drag a (expletive) up to Larch Mountain, beat ’em up for being a rat,” according to the affidavit.

Tuttle also is being held on suspicion of methamphetamine possession and bail jumping. Bail was set at an additional $50,000 for each of those charges. He and Long both have extensive criminal records.

Court records show Tuttle as a resident or former resident of both Vancouver and Battle Ground.