Chicago, Ill. – A Chicago woman who had been kidnapped and held captive in an abandoned house was saved by a passerby after her screams for help alerted him.
Community activist Antione Dobine, also known as “D-Ice”, said he heard screams for help and banging coming from inside the house, which is located on 119th and South Eggleston on the south side of Chicago. He said as he got closer to the house he heard “boom, boom, boom, help!” and “that’s what made me call the police.”
“She was screaming, ‘Help,’ and I was like, ‘Who is in there with you?’ and I was asking her different questions,” Dobine told ABC Chicago. “At that time, that is when I made the 911 call. The police said her legs were chained and her hands were handcuffed.”
Dobine immediately called police and waited near the house until they arrived. According to authorities, the woman was chained by her ankles to a bedroom wall inside the home when they found her.
The 36-year-old homeless woman, whose name is being withheld for privacy and safety reasons, says she had been trapped inside the brick home for four or five days and that her abductor had raped her twice.
The woman said she was walking to a store in the city’s South Side neighborhood last week when she ran into the suspect, a man in his 60s she had encountered before.
“I ended up bumping into him and he was like, ‘You know, come here for a minute,’” she told WGN News, adding that the man then grabbed her.
“I’m trying to fight him but I can’t fight him,” the victim told the news outlet.
The man took her to a the vacant house, where he put her in the basement and then dragged her to the attic, she said.
“He raped me twice. He left me in there handcuffed and chained,” she recounted about the horrific ordeal, adding that she cried for help for several days until about 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
She said she is thankful that Dobine didn’t ignore her screams for help.
“He could have ignored me but he heard me and he helped me,” she said. “I’m just blessed. I’m truly blessed.”
Dobine said he plans to raise money to help turn abandoned properties into resources for the area.
“Returning citizens from incarceration need a place to stay,” he said. “Our mental health people need a place to stay to get back on their feet.”
The man who abducted and raped her is not in custody yet.
Police hope that surveillance footage from a nearby gym will help them find and arrests the suspect.
“We are working with the victim to try and get a better description of the defendant, and do our best to, obviously, apprehend him,” Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said during a news conference.
