Grace Dotson’s relatives watched her location move south on Interstate 25 before deputies stopped the vehicle and rescued her.
PUEBLO, Colo. — Grace Dotson’s family could see her phone traveling farther from the Denver area, but they could not bring the vehicle back, reach inside it or know when the four-hour kidnapping would end. More than a year later, the man who held her captive has been sentenced to 26 years in prison.
Dotson and several relatives described their experience in court June 12 before a judge sentenced Shane McSwane, 29, according to the Pueblo County District Attorney’s Office. McSwane pleaded guilty to second-degree kidnapping and attempted aggravated robbery and received two consecutive 13-year terms. The sentence formally resolved the prosecution, but the hearing centered heavily on the human impact of May 25, 2025, when relatives followed Dotson’s electronic location as her car moved south along Interstate 25 with McSwane behind the wheel.
The family’s ordeal began without warning. Dotson had witnessed a crash near the Interstate 70 and Interstate 225 interchange in Aurora and stopped to contact emergency services, officials said. The act placed her close to McSwane, who had been involved in the collision. Authorities said he forced his way into her vehicle and kidnapped her. Within a short time, the familiar car and phone that ordinarily helped relatives stay connected became the moving signs of an emergency they could observe but could not control.
McSwane drove for about four hours, sometimes changing direction and operating the vehicle erratically, prosecutors said. Dotson was kept inside as the trip continued away from Aurora. At certain points, McSwane allowed her to answer calls from relatives. Those conversations gave her family proof that she was alive but also exposed the limits of what they could do from a distance. The calls occurred while the kidnapping remained underway, and officials have not released a complete transcript or a detailed record of everything Dotson was able to communicate.
Local reporting after the rescue said Dotson managed to send her mother a short message asking for help. She also had contact with emergency dispatchers and referred to a serious traffic crash. Her boyfriend reportedly understood from speaking with her that she was not all right. Those fragments of contact were important because Dotson could not simply explain the entire situation or leave the vehicle. Her family instead had to interpret limited words, the tone of calls and the direction shown by her phone’s location while authorities tried to find and stop the car.
At sentencing, family members called those hours a nightmare and the worst four hours of their lives, according to the district attorney’s office. Their description showed how the crime extended beyond the vehicle. Dotson experienced the direct loss of freedom and danger of being driven across the state by a stranger. Her relatives experienced a separate form of helplessness as the phone traveled south. They could see distance accumulating on a screen while waiting for law enforcement officers in several jurisdictions to close that distance on the highway.
The movement eventually led into Pueblo County, where deputies were investigating a robbery at a convenience store in Colorado City. Officials said the vehicle associated with that report matched the description of Dotson’s car. Deputies located it traveling north toward Pueblo and attempted to stop it. McSwane refused, turned around and drove south again on Interstate 25, the sheriff’s office said. That reversal added another stage to an already long ordeal and shifted the response into a pursuit involving officers from more than one county.
Deputies continued after the vehicle into Huerfano County. There, Huerfano County personnel placed stop sticks in its path, deflating the tires. A Pueblo County deputy then performed a Pursuit Intervention Technique, forcing the vehicle to stop. McSwane was arrested, and Dotson was safely removed from the car. The rescue ended the live movement relatives had been watching and replaced uncertainty with confirmation that she had survived. Authorities credited the coordination between Pueblo and Huerfano county deputies with ending the pursuit.
The later court process placed Dotson in the same room as the man convicted of taking control of her car and freedom. District Attorney Kala Beauvais said Dotson showed strength and courage while addressing the court with McSwane present. The prosecutor’s remarks focused not only on survival but also on Dotson’s ability to speak publicly about what had happened. Beauvais said no outsider could fully understand what Dotson endured, while expressing gratitude that law enforcement officers were able to rescue her alive.
Dotson and her family also offered a message that prosecutors described as compassionate. They said they hoped McSwane would do the work needed to become a better man before he is released someday. That statement did not ask the court to erase the crime or avoid punishment. It came as the judge imposed 26 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections. The family’s words instead looked beyond the sentencing date, recognizing that the prison term is meant to punish serious conduct while leaving open the possibility that McSwane may change during it.
The legal consequences are substantial. Both convictions were classified as Class 4 felonies and crimes of violence, the district attorney’s office said. The court did not order the 13-year terms to run at the same time. By making them consecutive, the judge created the total 26-year sentence announced in court. Prosecutors also said McSwane must serve 85% before becoming eligible for parole. That threshold governs when he may first be considered; it does not promise that he will be released at that point.
The guilty pleas mean the case did not proceed to a trial where Dotson and other witnesses might have been called to testify about the events. McSwane admitted the two offenses in court and was sentenced that day. Officials have not publicly provided the full plea agreement or a transcript of the hearing, so the precise positions taken by the defense and prosecution are not available in the releases. The announced outcome nevertheless establishes convictions for kidnapping and attempted aggravated robbery, not merely accusations connected with the arrest.
Dotson’s family thanked the multiple law enforcement agencies involved in her rescue. That gratitude reflected a response that covered a long physical route and several stages: the initial abduction in Aurora, the southbound travel, the robbery report in Colorado City, the attempted stop near Pueblo, the renewed southbound flight and the final intervention in Huerfano County. Each development brought new officers and new information into a case that had begun with one woman stopping to report a traffic collision.
The 26-year sentence supplies a legal endpoint, but the family’s account explains why the case was more than a chase or a set of felony counts. For four hours, a location marker carried the only steady sign of where Dotson might be as relatives waited for news. Their courtroom statements transformed that map movement into a record of fear, survival and gratitude. McSwane is now expected to serve his sentence in state custody, while Dotson and her family move forward after an ordeal they said changed all of them.
Author note: Last updated July 13, 2026.