A passerby who heard a voice screaming for help coming from an abandoned home in Chicago found a woman chained up inside it last weekend.
The man, Antione Dobine, was walking down a street on the 11900 block of South Eggleston on the evening of Saturday, May 21 when he heard a voice coming from an abandoned home and the sound of banging against the building's boarded-up windows, and immediately called the police.
"I was walking down the street and I heard someone beating against the windows," Dobine said in a Facebook live that was watched by over 400,000 people. "There's a lady trapped in this house," he added.
"She was screaming, 'Help,' and I was like, 'Who is in there with you?' and I was asking her different questions," Dobine said, as quoted by ABC7. "At that time, that is when I made the 911 call."
When police officers arrived on the scene, they broke into the abandoned home to find a 36-year-old woman chained up inside it.
The woman, whose name has not been revealed by police, said she was abducted and taken to the basement of the abandoned house, where she was raped, handcuffed and chained. She said she had been there for four or five days before being rescued by police. Neighbors talking to ABC7 said they had seen the victim in the area before and thought she was homeless.
According to Fox 12, the woman was brought to a hospital from which she was released on Sunday morning in good condition.
Police are investigating the case as a sexual assault and kidnapping, and are currently looking for the suspect. "We are bringing all of our resources to bear in bringing this offender to justice," Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said. Nobody is in custody yet.
Brown, speaking at a news conference on weekend violence in the city, said the incident involving the abducted woman was a priority for the department.
People living in the same neighborhood as the abandoned home where the woman was held by her abductor said the building had been empty for more than 30 years—not a rarity in the area.
Fox 12 said that the home where the woman was held is one among half a dozen homes on the 11900 block of South Eggleston that are abandoned. The incident is causing neighbors to raise the issue of abandoned and neglected properties in the area, calling for action to improve the situation of the neighborhood.
Newsweek has asked the Chicago police for comment.
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Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek Reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. and European politics, global affairs ... Read more
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