Updated

An Alabama hotel clerk abducted at gunpoint says his captors shared glimpses of their life on the run, telling him they hope to make it to Florida to get married and start a new life together.

Police have linked the Missouri couple to crimes in Alabama and Georgia, saying the offenses fit a similar pattern: People are robbed, kidnapped and let go unharmed, usually after a car is stolen. Police identified them as Blake Fitzgerald and Brittany Nicole Harper of Joplin, Missouri.

Kyle Dease is the night clerk at Microtel Inn and Suites in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He tells the news site Al.com (http://bit.ly/1UJtddn) that during nearly two hours he was held captive in a stolen car, Fitzgerald told him he had no plans of returning to prison. Dease says he's afraid that if police corner the couple, they're "going to go out shooting."