Couple pick up crazed hitchhiker who then attacks them

by Teresa Gubbins

FORT WORTH — A couple in Fort Worth picked up a hitchhiker who turned out to be deranged. Within a block, he attacked them.

Mark Aaron Childers, 43, of Weatherford, was arrested on two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon; he was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital for evaluation.

The couple was tooling along in a pickup on the eastbound service road of Interstate 30 near Cherry Lane when they spotted Childers walking.

According to the FWST, the male passenger, 41, urged the female driver to give the guy a ride, telling her he'd want someone to do the same for him, were he in that situation.

Shout-out to hitchhiker Mark Aaron Childers for providing an excuse to post a picture of a hamster. Isn't he adorable?!

When the male passenger bragged to Childers about his recently born child, that set him off. He lunged forward and stabbed the passenger in the head, shoulder, and arms. The driver pulled over and stopped at an animal clinic, and the hitchhiker chased her around the truck, then slashed all four tires.

Childers later told officers he'd been kidnapped by the couple and forced to drink beer and use drugs. He also said that a hamster was after him and that there were animals in the front seat of the police patrol car.

The victim, who was stabbed in the left temple, nose, and right hand, was taken to Harris Methodist Fort Worth hospital. His injuries are not believed to be life-threatening, though no diagnosis was offered on his common sense.