Police: Web Couple Held Teen as 'Slave'
Aug. 14 -- A 15-year-old Massachusetts girl was kidnapped, held captive, tortured and raped by a New York couple she met in an Internet chat room, police say.
James Warren, 41, and Beth Loschin, 46, held the girl for a week in their Long Island, N.Y., home, where they repeatedly assaulted her sexually and beat her, police said.
"During the assault, the victim was physically injured and subjected to humiliating and dehumanizing acts. That's all I'll be going into in that respect," Nassau County Police spokesman Lt. Vincent Robustelli said in a news conference about the incident.
The suspects also, police said, brought the teen at one point to the home of a third alleged abuser, Michael Montez, in nearby Queens, N.Y. Officials said the suspects threatened to kill the victim if she did not follow Montez's orders.
On Friday, she was able to call a friend and police in Wrentham, Mass., when the couple left her alone in their house.
"After a few tense moments when she had to hang up the phone because the suspects came back home, she was rescued by the police," Wrentham Police Detective Jim Buchet said.
Police arrested the couple Friday, charging Warren with kidnapping, sodomy, rape, and sexual abuse, and Loschin with sodomy and sexual abuse.
Montez was arrested over the weekend and charged with kidnapping, rape, sodomy, sexual assault and other crimes, Mary de Bourbon, a spokeswoman for the Queens District Attorney's Office told the Associated Press.
Teen Had Wanted to Run Away
Police say Warren and Loschin convinced the high school sophomore to meet them Aug. 3 at the Wrentham, Mass., outlet mall where she worked.
The girl had told them in an online chat room that she wanted to run away from home, and they offered to help. But it didn't take long for her to realize she had made a mistake.
"After about an hour, she knew she was in over her head," Robustelli said.
The teen was handcuffed and bound with rope much of the time, police said. She also told investigators the suspects kept her blindfolded and locked in a closet.
