Woman missing for days may have been kidnapped from her home, NC sheriff says
A man already in jail has been named “a person of interest” in the disappearance of a Catawba County woman, according to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.
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Leroy Allen Loper has not been charged, but “investigators are evaluating evidence and information potentially connecting Loper” to the suspected kidnapping of 58-year-old Robin Doyle, officials said.
Doyle hasn’t been heard from since 5 p.m. Monday, July 27, when she was last seen at her home on 33rd Street NE in Hickory, officials say.
“Sheriff’s investigators suspect that Doyle was possibly kidnapped from her residence on 07/28/26,” the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office said in a Thursday Facebook post.
“Investigators are asking for anyone with information about Leroy Allen Loper to contact the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office. Specifically, sheriff’s investigators are seeking information from anyone who may have seen and or interacted with Loper in Catawba County, Surry County and all points in between from Monday, 07/27/26 until Loper’s arrest on the evening of 07/29/26.”
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Investigators have not said what led them to investigate Loper, 54, who is “a registered sex offender with felony convictions for first degree kidnapping and second degree forcible sexual offense,” the SBI reports.
He was arrested Wednesday on unrelated Sex Offender Registry violations involving Instagram and TikTok accounts, court documents report. Loper is being held at the Catawba County Detention Facility on a $200,000 secured bond, the sheriff’s office says.
Anyone with information in the case is asked to call Catawba County Sheriff’s Office at 828-464-3112. Anonymous information may also be submitted through the Sheriff’s Office tip line at 828-466-2847.
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Hickory is about a 60-mile drive northwest from uptown Charlotte.
