A 20-year-old man is dead after Rogers County authorities say he abducted his 17-year-old girlfriend in Tulsa, beat her and another person, and then fired four shots inside a vehicle in Inola before apparently shooting himself.

Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton said deputies were notified shortly before 4 a.m. after a report of a suspicious driver in Inola brought the case to their attention. Walton said the chain of events began after “some type of late-night party in Tulsa,” when Holden Wayne Cothran forcefully took the teenage girl from the Tulsa area without her permission.

Walton said the girl tried to get help from a good Samaritan, who was also badly beaten during the incident. Investigators said law enforcement agencies, including Owasso police, had been searching for Cothran overnight before the situation moved into Rogers County.

Inside the vehicle, Walton said, the teen told investigators that Cothran threatened to kill both of them if police tried to stop the car. Authorities said he then opened fire four times inside the vehicle, but the girl was not struck. When the vehicle stopped, Walton said, she escaped while injured from a beating.

The sheriff said investigators believe Cothran died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Deputies also said he had a military ID identifying him as a Private in the Army. The identities of the girl and the other person involved have not been released.

The case is still being pieced together because the events unfolded across multiple jurisdictions, and investigators are still trying to line up the timeline. That work may be the clearest clue left in a case that began as a late-night party in Tulsa and ended before dawn with a fatal shooting in Inola.