Kidnapped Florida woman held in dog cage escapes as Orange County Sheriffs Officer arrests her 4 captors after hours stand-off. Woman abducted in relation to a stolen item, unclear whether abducted woman knew her Pine Hills captors.
Four suspected kidnappers were arrested in Florida after a woman in her 40s allegedly held captive in a dog cage in a backyard managed to escape her captors, knocking on doors nearby pleading with neighbors for help.
The un-identified woman knocked on the front door of a Pine Hills home on Aug. 12 and begged the homeowner for help, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said in an Aug. 14 news release.
The woman said she had been held captive in a cage at a nearby home, deputies said.
6 hour stand-off
The sheriff’s office responded to the neighborhood and began what became a six-hour standoff until four people were taken into custody, WOFL reported, citing an arrest affidavit.
Monica Latresis Reed, 37, Cortez Jackson, 39, Kevin Holmes, 21, and Damon Tromp, 19, were charged with armed kidnapping with intent to commit a felony and false imprisonment with a weapon, according to a Facebook release by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
Reed is facing an additional count of aggravated battery with a firearm after police say she allegedly pistol whipped the unnamed victim in the cheek while taking her hostage.
‘The manner in which the firearm was used could have caused great bodily harm or permanent disfigurement,’ the arrest affidavit stated in part.
The affidavit stated the four, worked together as a group to approach the woman and tie her hands together. The affidavit said the group was holding her captive for information about a potentially stolen item, WFTV reported.
Abducted over stolen item
The affidavit stated Reed and the three others ‘did forcibly confine, abduct or imprison the victim against their will by for the purpose of inflicting bodily harm or terrorizing the victim.’
‘This was done for the defendant to obtain information from the victim, namely the victim’s address, in regard to a potential stolen item,’ the affidavit said.
The victim is said to have been forced at gunpoint inside a vehicle where her hands were tied with a cord.
The suspects allegedly duct taped the victim’s hands and feet together and her mouth shut. Jackson, Holmes and Trump allegedly further helped to physically restrain the victim inside the car when she attempted to escape. She was then kept in a dog cage in Reed’s backyard, the affidavit states.
The victim somehow managed to escape. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were dispatched Saturday afternoon after the woman knocked on a door on Barnett Place in Pine Hills, Florida, pleading for help and saying she had just escaped after being held against her will in a cage at a nearby property.
Jackson is also facing a count of failure to appear on a previous petit theft retail charge, online jail records show.
It is unclear how the woman was able to escape or if she knew the accused kidnappers.
No further updates available on the case as of Monday.
Pine Hills is a western suburb of Orlando.
