EXCELSIOR SPRINGS, Mo. — A woman held hostage since early September escaped her suspected Missouri captor’s residence Friday morning, wearing a makeshift shock collar and begging his neighbors for help, police said.
According to charging documents filed Tuesday in Clay County Circuit Court, Timothy M. Haslett of Excelsior Springs was arrested Friday on suspicion of kidnapping, rape and assault linked to the woman’s alleged involuntary confinement, The Kansas City Star reported.
Excelsior Springs is about 28 miles northeast of Kansas City.
According to KHSB-TV, Lisa Johnson spotted a woman in distress just after 7:30 a.m. appearing to crawl up her front steps. Johnson told the TV station that in addition to what appeared to be a homemade shock collar, she also noticed ligature marks around the woman’s wrists and ankles.
When Johnson grabbed the phone to call 911, however, the woman ran away, saying that the man who had held her captive would kill them both. Johnson reported the allegations to authorities at 7:47 a.m. KHSB reported.
Meanwhile, Ciara Tharp, whose grandmother lives next door to Johnson, told the TV station that her grandmother heard a woman knocking on the door, saying, “You have to help me. I’ve been raped. I’ve been held captive.”
The victim, who was found wearing latex lingerie and a metal collar with what appeared to be a padlock on the front, told police that she had been kept in a “small room in the basement” since being picked up on Kansas City’s Prospect Avenue in early September, according to the Star.
“He kept her restrained in handcuffs on her wrists and ankles. She was able to get free when he took his child to school,” an Excelsior Springs detective wrote in a probable cause statement obtained by the newspaper.
According to charging documents, the woman pointed out the home in which she had been held as she was being transported for medical treatment. The victim also told police that Haslett had “whipped her” and raped her “frequently” during her imprisonment, the Star reported.
According to the newspaper, the victim’s statements to police aroused suspicions that other people may have been hurt or endangered inside Haslett’s home, but no additional charges had been filed and no additional victims had been identified publicly by Tuesday. Police did confirm to the Star, however, that they are investigating Haslett for other unspecified crimes.
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