CHICAGO (WGN) — Chicago police are investigating after a woman says she was abducted, raped and chained inside a vacant South Side house for days.
The 36-year-old woman, whom WGN News is not naming, says she was held captive and sexually assaulted inside a West Pullman home for four to five days. The woman was walking to a neighborhood store last week when she says she ran into a man she had previously encountered.
“I ended up bumping into him and he was like, ‘you know, come here for a minute,'” the woman said.
According to the woman, the male offender grabbed her.
“I’m trying to fight him but I can’t fight him,” she said.
The woman said the male offender, allegedly in his 60s, took her to a vacant house in the 119th block of S. Eggleston. The woman adds that she was taken to the basement and dragged to the attic.
“He raped me twice,” the woman said. “He left me in there handcuffed and chained.”
The woman said the suspect chained her by the ankles. She said her daily cries for help went unanswered until around 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
“As I got closer, I’m hearing boom, boom, boom, help!” community activist Antione Dobine said. “That’s what made me call the police.”
Dobine, also known as “D-Ice” streamed the discovery on Facebook Live.
“I just located a girl inside of this house. Police say she’s chained up,” the Hands Around the Hundreds community activist said in the video.
Before police arrived on the scene, Dobine says he saw a man leave the vacant house. According to Dobine, the man was wearing a blue jean corduroy jacket and stood about 5-foot-8-inches.
After police rescued the woman from the house, first responders took her to a local hospital for medical treatment. She said she is grateful that Dobine intervened.
“He could have ignored me but he heard me and he helped me,” she said. “I’m just blessed. I’m truly blessed.”
West Pullman resident Louis Walton-Muhammed said he hopes the incident brings attention to other abandoned properties nearby.
“Let’s open the abandoned homes,” Walton-Muhammed said. “Let’s walk through the homes. Let’s do a search. Let’s lock it back up and make sure everything is OK.”
Dobine said he hopes to raise money to help turn vacant properties into resources for the community.
“Returning citizens from incarceration need a place to stay,” Dobine said. “Our mental health people need a place to stay to get back on their feet.”
The victim says she is grateful to be alive and doesn’t want what happened to her to anyone else.
“I believe he will strike again,” she said. “I just want him caught.”
