SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — New Jersey State Police arrested a man suspected of kidnapping a woman and holding her hostage for almost a year on a cross-country trek that ended in Burlington County.
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office said James Parrillo, Jr., 57, met a woman at a gas station in New Mexico last February, and she agreed to give him a ride to Arizona. She told police it began as a consensual relationship for about a month before, authorities say, he became violent while they were in California.
They eventually traveled across the country and settled in Bass River, Burlington County in December.
Officials said that during the year together, she said Parrillo took her wallet and phone, used her debit cards, and isolated her from her family.
Prosecutors said that on Feb. 7, after being beaten and choked, she ran off wearing nothing but shorts and a shirt in winter weather.
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They said she went to a gas station nearby, bolted the door, and told the clerk to call police. Prosecutors say video shows that Parrillo followed her, but left once he couldn’t get inside. Police arrested him shortly afterward on County Road 542.
Parrillo is now being held in the Burlington County Jail and is charged with first-degree kidnapping, second-degree strangulation and aggravated assault, and third-degree criminal restraint. He faces more than 30 years in prison if convicted on all charges.
Prosecutors with the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office said that information from both the alleged victim and social media shows that Parrillo may have committed similar crimes in other states, and he will remain behind bars pending trial. New Jersey State Police are continuing their investigation.