GRANBY, Mo. — A man in southern Missouri is being held on multiple felony counts after allegedly kidnapping, assaulting and holding a cancer patient captive for almost 24 hours.

Derrick M. Clouse, 31, was arrested Thursday after Richard N. Hedman, 47, was able to escape his captor’s clutches by feigning morphine withdrawal pains, fleeing four blocks in a wheelchair and calling 911 from a nearby cafe.

Hedman told Granby police that Clouse deals methamphetamine and will pay him for rides with the drug. Hedman, who was described in an affidavit as a cancer victim who is unable to walk without support, said he was going to give Clouse a ride Wednesday evening. When he arrived at Clouse’s home, Clouse pointed his gun at him, punched him in the head and told him he was going to kill him. Hedman said Clouse was angry because he had not told him that Hedman is a registered sex offender.

For almost 24 hours, Clouse held Hedman against his will, saying Hedman would be “lucky” if he lived through the night. Hedman told police that a man and a woman came throughout the night, kicked him and threatened him. They too said he would be “the luckiest person on the planet,” if he survived the incident.

Clouse told Hedman that from now on, Hedman would need to give Clouse all of his prescribed hydrocodone pills, half his morphine pills and rides wherever he wanted. Clouse also said if Hedman went to police he would kill him and his family.

The next morning, Clouse told Hedman that they needed to go to pick up a couple of ounces of dope, according to the affidavit. They got into Hedman’s van, along with the other man and woman, and they directed him to drive about 25 miles to Joplin. When they arrived at a house there, they went inside, taking the keys to the van with them. Hedman told police that he managed to stay behind alone in the van by pretending to be extremely sick from morphine withdrawal pains.

Once they were inside, he lowered himself in the wheelchair on the van’s lift and fled four blocks to a nearby cafe, where he asked an employee to call for help.

According to the affidavit, Graby police found more than 60 used and unused syringes, some bags of meth and marijuana, and a .22 caliber pistol.

Clouse was arrested at a store in Graby and denied kidnapping Hedman and living in the home where Hedman was held. He is being charged with first-degree kidnapping, armed criminal action, second-degree assault, tampering with a motor vehicle, possession of a controlled substance and delivery of a controlled substance. Because Clouse was on probation, he cannot be released on any bond.

Lehr writes for the Joplin, Missouri Globe.