committed it.” State v. Damon, 78 N.C. App. 421, 422, 337 S.E.2d 170, 170 (1985) (citing State v. Riddle, 300 N.C. 744, 746, 268 S.E.2d 80, 81 (1980)). A. Defendant in the present case was charged with first degree kidnapping, based on the unlawful confinement, restraint, or removal of the child without consent, for the purpose of facilitating the commission of a felony, being larceny of a motor vehicle, and the failure of defendant to release the child in a safe place. See N.C.G.S. § 14-39. It is the State’s burden to prove the applicable elements of first degree kidnapping, including, in this case, that defendant failed to release the child in a safe place. State v. Corley, 310 N.C. 40, 55, 311 S.E.2d 540, 549 (1984). Defendant specifically argues that the State d 339, 352 (1983) (<HOLDING>); State v. Parker, 143 N.C. App. 680, 688, 550
holding the evidence supported a finding that the handicapped victim was not in a safe place where the victim was tied and undressed in the wintertime and left in an unfamiliar area holding the evidence sufficient to permit the jury to infer the victim escaped from the defendant at a convenience store as opposed to being released in a safe place holding sufficient evidence existed that the victim was not released in a safe place where the victim was left tied to a tree in a damp wooded area fortyfive feet off a dirt road and ninetythree feet down a path holding the evidence established the victim was released in a safe place when the victim was taken to a motel near a major shopping center in the middle of the afternoon was voluntarily dropped off with change to make a phone call and received assistance from hotel employees in the office holding the evidence supported the inference that the victim was not released in a safe place where the victim overpowered the defendants and effected his own escape