PORTAGE, Wis. — Three people are in custody following what police said was a kidnapping in Madison that ended with the victim being fatally shot in rural Columbia County.

According to a news release from the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office, the kidnapping happened Tuesday in Madison. The victim was reportedly assaulted and bound before being put in his own vehicle and driven to a rural area between Portage and the Wisconsin Dells, where he was shot.

The release said the Madison Police Department reached out to the sheriff’s office on Wednesday as part of the investigation into the man’s kidnapping after learning he may have been killed in Columbia County. The sheriff’s office said it later confirmed the vehicle was in Portage early Tuesday morning.

After searching areas in Portage and nearby, investigators found the man’s body near the area of Klappstein Road and State Highway 16 in the town of Lewiston Wednesday evening.

The sheriff’s office said the suspects left the scene in the victim’s vehicle, drove back to Madison and then threw out his belongings. On Wednesday, police in Madison got a report of a woman who had tried to run over a man using the homicide victim’s vehicle, the release said.

A 28-year-old Madison resident was arrested on a tentative charge of first-degree intentional homicide. Two other people, a 21-year-old and a 38-year-old, both from Madison, each face a tentative charge of first-degree intentional homicide as a party to a crime.

The victim’s name is being withheld until his family has been notified and an autopsy has been completed.

Officials did not provide details about what may have led to the incident, but the Madison Police Department plans to hold a news conference at 4 p.m. about the case.

The incident was targeted, and there is no threat to the public, the release said.

News 3 Now is not naming the suspects at this time as part of a policy not to name people accused of crimes until they have been formally charged in court. Click here to learn more about the policy .

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