A 22-year old traumatized woman has walked away alive after being kidnapped and raped while being held captive for multiple weeks by a Missouri man in his basement.
The woman said the man restrained, whipped, and raped her multiple times before she was able to escape the house.
The victim fled the Excelsior Springs home of her captor Timothy Haslett Jr., 39, after he left to take his child to school.
She immediately ran to a neighbor’s home for help, appearing malnourished and wearing a metal dog collar with a padlock around her neck.
Neighbors said the woman showed clear signs of abuse.
Ciara Tharp said, “My grandmother heard the woman banging on her door and yelling for help at around 7:45 a.m. Friday. She heard a woman screaming and came knocking on the door, so she opened the door and the lady said, ‘You have to help me, I’ve been raped, I’ve been held captive. She’s like, ‘You gotta help me.’”
Tharp’s grandmother quickly brought the woman into her home, wrapped a blanket around her, and gave her food and water.
“My grandma could tell she was weak,” Tharp said. “She didn’t have a whole lot of clothes on. She said she had a metal dog collar around her neck and could see the ligature marks around her wrists.”
The victim told Tharp’s grandmother and another neighbor that her abuser lived down the street and said she was afraid he would kill her if he found out she escaped.
Tharp’s grandmother called 911 and the woman was taken to the hospital in an ambulance.
On the way to the hospital, she pointed to Haslett’s home and identified it as the place she had been held captive since early September.
Authorities who responded to the call found the victim, who has not been identified, wearing latex lingerie and a metal collar with a padlock around her neck. She also had duct tape around her neck and marks on her wrists and ankles.
The woman explained to police that she had been kidnapped in Kansas City by a man named Timothy at the beginning of September.
Since then, she said she had been held hostage in small room he had built in his basement, where she was restrained in handcuffs around her wrists and ankles.
She went on to reveal that Haslett raped her multiple times and quite frequently in the tiny basement room. He would also whip her while she was restrained.
The victim had injuries on her back that were consistent with being whipped. Medical staff also noted, the collar locked around her neck was restricting her breathing.
Police executed a search warrant of Haslett’s home and discovered the basement room the woman described. They also recovered multiple firearms from the home.
Haslett was arrested on the same day his victim escaped on an unrelated animal control violation. He has since been charged with rape, kidnapping and assault.
The victim was taken to a hospital for treatment and is listed in stable condition. She told officers that there were other victims. However, authorities have not been able to identify any.
Tharp said the woman told her grandmother that Haslett killed her friends.
“She made the comment that ‘he killed my friends. They didn’t make it. He killed my friends’,” Tharp said. “She just kept repeating it.”
Police said they are thoroughly investigating the possibility of additional victims but have found no evidence of any thus far.
