A Missouri neighborhood was shocked last week when a woman, who was bound and wearing a dog shock collar, started banging on doors saying that she was being held captive and raped.
Thanks to the help of the neighbors, the woman was able to contact the authorities and report the allegations on Friday morning, according to the Clay County Sheriff's Office.
The office said in a statement that after she reported the kidnapping and assault, Timothy Haslett Jr. was taken into custody and charged with rape, kidnapping, and assault.
Lisa Johnson, one of the neighbors where the woman pleaded for help, shared with NBC News that she had seen the victim hunched over and asking for help while crawling up her front steps.
"Her face was bound, and she had taken that off. She had some kind of collar device on," Johnson told KCTV. "She told me that she was being held and that the person she was being held by lived up the street."
Johnson noted that she appeared to have been wearing a homemade shock collar, with ligature marks around her wrists and ankles, according to KSHB. She was also described as wearing barely any clothes, appearing thin with duct tape around her neck.
After interacting with the woman, Johnson grabbed her phone and dialed 911, but the woman began saying out of fear that her captor would find them and kill them, the station reported.
Ciara Tharp and her grandmother, two other neighbors nearby, let the woman into their home as Johnson called the police.
"My grandma said she had a metal collar around her neck pretty tight. It was restricting her breathing," Tharp said.
According to Tharp's grandmother, while she was knocking on the door, the woman had been saying, "You have to help me. I've been raped. I've been held captive," KSHB reported.
Tharp's grandmother took the woman in, giving her food, water, and a blanket. That's when she told the women she was being held in a basement for over a month but escaped after the man who kidnapped her left his house.
Police are still investigating the kidnapping, as the woman told the neighbors that the man who took her "killed" her friends, saying they "didn't make it." Tharp reported that she "kept repeating" the phrases.
"She was terrified. She said, 'If somebody doesn't let me in, he's going to find me, and he's going to kill me,'" Tharp said. "I mean, he was not that far away. He was within a couple of minutes away."
There hasn't been any further information released from investigators, including on if the bodies of the woman's friends were found.
"We have no further victims that we are aware of at this specific moment in time. We are still processing the warrant, and that all is subject to change," Excelsior Springs Police Lt Ryan Dowdy told KCTV.
Related
Related
