Columbus County man charged with rape in S.C.

TABOR CITY - A Tabor City man has been charged with rape, kidnapping and armed robbery in North Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Mark Allen Elliott, 35, of the 100 block of School Street, was arrested Monday following a brief foot chase, according to a report by Officer E.G. Wells of the North Myrtle Beach Department of Public Safety.

Elliott was being held without bail Tuesday at the North Myrtle Beach jail. He was to be transferred to the J. Reuben Long Detention Center near Conway.

He is accused of kidnapping and raping a 14-year-old girl who was vacationing in North Myrtle Beach, according to police.

The girl had sneaked out to meet her boyfriend and a friend. The three teenagers were talking on the street about 3:20 a.m. Monday when they noticed an older red Toyota Camry circle the block twice, the report said. On the third pass, a man stopped and asked for directions, the report said.

After asking for directions, the man pulled a gun, ordered the teens to the ground and told them to empty their pockets. He told the boys to walk away and took the girl in his car, the report said.

Police were with the boys when an officer spotted the Toyota, the report said. Elliott pulled over just outside North Myrtle Beach on S.C. 9 and ran before being caught, the report said. The girl was not in the car.

The girl called police a short time later. She told investigators she had been taken to a pier, raped and left behind. She wandered for some time before encountering a man on an early morning run. That man called police.

The girl was taken to a hospital, where she told police about her abduction and rape.

Elliott is on North Carolina's Registered Sex Offender list following his release from state prison in April 2008 on a 1997 second-degree sex offense conviction.