A Taney County deputy gave a rape suspect a ride just days before he reportedly kidnapped a woman in Missouri and raped her in Arkansas. The deputy says he gave 28-year-old Dale Lee Stanford a ride from the Ridgedale area to Hollister. The officer wrote down the man’s driver’s license information on the trip. The officer says he recognized Stanford as the same man seen in video surveillance at a state-line gas station.

A 34-year-old woman prepaid for gas around 4:00 p.m. at Wild Bills on November 6th. "She noticed her floor mat was turned over, but she didn’t think much of it and started her vehicle," Boone County Sheriff Danny Hickman says. Investigators say Stanford, who was just released from prison, was hiding in the woman's backseat. "He pulled a knife and told her where to drive to," Hickman says.

Hickman says the woman was forced to drive down 65 Highway crossing the Missouri line onto an Arkansas county road. “For about two hours he raped her, it was a very brutal rape," Hickman says. The sheriff says at one point the woman was able to grab the knife and tried to stab the man who pushed her out of the vehicle and drove off in her minivan. A state trooper found the woman walking along 65 Highway.

"I think he had it in his mind he was going to do this," Hickman says. Gas station snapshots show Stanford buying beer. Before the attack, Hickman says stanford hung around the gas station lot. "He tried to pick up another female but she didn't want anything to do with him," Hickman says.

After the attack, investigators say Stanford shaved his head but say his tattoos gave him away. Both the deputy who gave him a ride and the victim say he's the man on the surveillance tape. The victim described a smiley face tattoo on her attacker’s hands and the initials “DSL” on his arm. Investigators say Stanford has both tattoos and many others.

Stanford is also wanted by Louisiana officials for violating probation. He faces kidnapping and armed criminal action charges in Taney County for forcing the woman to drive out of Missouri at knife point. In Boone County, Arkansas, Stanford faces two counts of rape, kidnapping, aggravated robbery, theft of property, two counts of terroristic threatening, use of a prohibited weapon, battery and a charge for being a habitual offender. He could be sentenced to three life terms or death in Arkansas.