ST. LOUIS – A former Lyft driver appeared in St. Louis Circuit Court on Monday and admitted to the 2019 kidnapping and rape of a young woman.
Larry Donnell Ward, 57, will be sentenced Tuesday morning after pleading guilty to first-degree kidnapping and first-degree rape.
“This case is a modern urban nightmare,” St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore said.
The crime occurred on the evening of June 22, 2019. The victim had used a ride-sharing app to get a ride home from a bachelorette party at a downtown bar.
The victim went to a hospital the following day for a sexual assault exam, which confirmed she’d been raped.
Police collected data from the victim’s phone and the ride-sharing app to discover when and where she’d been picked up and how long the ride lasted. The trip was less than five miles and cost $9.02, but it took 50 minutes. The victim’s receipt also had an image of Ward.
