Kidnapping charges filed against man accused of holding a woman against her will with a shotgun and strangling her near Marengo

Kidnapping charges have been filed against a man accused of holding a woman armed with a shotgun against her will and strangling her, prompting a SWAT operation near Marengo.

The McHenry County Sheriff's Office responded around 6:20 a.m. Friday to Lehman's Lakeside RV Resort, 19609 Harmony Road in unincorporated Marengo.

According to police radio traffic, dispatchers received a call to check on the well-being of a woman at the RV camp.

The caller reported that there were weapons in the trailer and that the woman had previously been threatened by her boyfriend.

Officers made no contact with the woman and left the area, assuming the woman was not on site.

Police radio traffic indicated that officers were called back to the scene around 8:50 a.m. after receiving a report that the woman was actually at the scene and was being threatened by her boyfriend, who was armed with a gun.

The sheriff's office sent an alert early Friday afternoon that there was a heavy police presence at the scene. The sheriff's office SWAT team also responded.

Sheriff's officials said the situation was “resolved” after the perpetrator, Stephen A. Dracousis, 29, of Aurora, was taken into custody.

“There is no danger to the public,” the warning said, calling the incident an “isolated domestic incident.”

Dracousis was charged with aggravated kidnapping with an armed weapon, kidnapping, aggravated domestic violence, aggravated unlawful restraint, possession of a firearm with a revoked FOID and violation of pretrial release for possession of a firearm.

A criminal complaint filed in McHenry County District Court alleges that Dracousis kidnapped the victim by “knowingly and secretly” locking the woman, about 20 years old, in his trailer armed with a firearm.

The complaint states that Dracousis strangled the woman by applying pressure to her throat with his hands, causing her to be unable to breathe.

The complaint states that Dracousis unlawfully possessed a shotgun despite having his gun owner's identification card revoked.

At the time of the incident, Dracousis was in custody for another aggravated domestic battery case out of DeKalb County involving the same victim.

The McHenry County Prosecutor's Office filed a motion to detain Dracousis in the McHenry County Jail pending trial.

McHenry County Judge Cynthia Lamb granted the petition during a court hearing Saturday.