A Chicago woman met her guardian angel in the most unlikely circumstance. After being kidnapped, raped and locked up in a vacant house, a good Samaritan heard her cry, saving her from the abuse of her captor.
On Saturday, May 21, a 36-year-old woman, whose name has been withheld, was discovered chained by her ankles in an abandoned house in the 119th block of South Eggleston in the West Pullman area of the Windy City by local activist Antione Dobine.
The Hands Around the Hundreds community stakeholder heard her crying out for help around 5:30 p.m. that evening and called the police to free her from her nightmare.
The woman, who police say was homeless, explained, as reported by WGN 9, that she knew the man who snatched and imprisoned her for four to five days. This particular chance meeting with the man at a local store would prove to be devastating.
She recalled, “I ended up bumping into him and he was like, ‘You know, come here for a minute.’ ”
When she came with him, the man reportedly grabbed her and forced her into bondage. She said she tried to resist but to no avail.
“I’m trying to fight him, but I can’t fight him,” the woman said.
The woman said he took her to the house, chained her and sexually assaulted her. “He raped me twice. He left me in there handcuffed and chained.”
According to the woman, the man first placed her in the basement, and over the week he dragged her to the attic of the house then into an upstairs bedroom where authorities ultimately found her.
The offender is described by both Dobine and the woman to be around 60 years old, 5′ 8″ and wearing a corduroy jacket.
Dobine, who also goes by the name “D-Ice,” said he saw the man leaving before hearing the woman crying.
“As I got closer, I’m hearing boom, boom, boom, help!” Dobine said.
“She was screaming, ‘Help,’ and I was like, ‘Who is in there with you?’ and I was asking her different questions,” Dobine continued. “At that time, that is when I made the 911 call.”
“I waited for them to come, and when police got here, they discovered there was a young lady in there, handcuffed and chained,” he said to NBC News.
He not only called the CPD, but went live on Facebook to share the discovery with his social media community, informing them, “I just located a girl inside of this house. Police say she’s chained up.”
Officers arrived at the house and rescued the woman. The first responders transported the woman to a local hospital. After receiving medical attention, she spoke to the press saying she was grateful for Dobine stepping in and helping when he could have walked away as others did.
She notes that she had been crying out for days. Others said they heard the voice but never investigated.
“He could have ignored me, but he heard me, and he helped me,” she said. “I’m just blessed. I’m truly blessed.”
This invoked a new fire in the community to clean up the neighborhood, realizing that the vacant buildings could be dangerous in many ways. The house where the heinous ordeal happened had been abandoned, according to neighbors, for 25 years
Louis Walton-Muhammed, one of the community residents, said he hopes this prompts an effort to take action.
“Let’s open the abandoned homes,” Walton-Muhammed proposed. “Let’s walk through the homes. Let’s do a search. Let’s lock it back up and make sure everything is OK.”
D-Ice said he would like to see a budget be created to refurbish the properties into restored spaces that would be used for community use, suggesting several ways that could answer some of the city’s trouble spots for certain underserved populations.
“You have the money,” he said. “You have all of these entities you can use for us to build our community, and it’s all about us building that community.”
From Dobine’s perspective, “Returning citizens from incarceration need a place to stay. Our mental health people need a place to stay to get back on their feet.”
One of those people in need to get back on their feet is the victim herself. A community member, Patricia Parnell, told the press that she knew the woman, saying she has helped her in the past.
“I feed her and when I see her, I give her food and water and stuff, talk to her,” Parnell revealed. “She is a sweet young lady. She is just down on her bad luck right now.”
Chicago police are searching for the assailant but has not been successful in locking him up.
Brendan Deenihan, the chief of detectives, said, “We are working with the victim to try and get a better description of the defendant, and do our best to, obviously, apprehend him.”
The victim said she wants them to find him, to not only bring her justice but to secure others.
“I believe he will strike again,” she said. “I just want him caught.”
