COMMUNITY leaders in a Missouri city say they reported black girls going missing for weeks before a 22-year-old woman escaped from a kidnapper who was holding her in his basement.
Timothy Haslett Jr is facing rape, kidnapping and assault charges after the woman, who has not been identified, says she escaped from his home on October 7.
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Excelsior Springs Police say they are now “actively investigating” the possibility of other victims after the victim claimed that her captor "killed two of my friends."
But Bishop Tony Caldwell, a local Kansas City community leader, insists the community was already aware that black women were going missing before the victim escaped.
Caldwell released a video back in mid-September urging police and media to investigate the alleged disappearance of three black women.
Police have responded to the clip, which also claims four women had been murdered, and say that the claims were "completely unfounded."
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"We want to make the public aware this claim is completely unfounded. There is no basis to support this rumor," KCPD said.
But Caldwell insists that his reports of women going missing were too close to the reported abduction of the 22-year-old to be ignored.
"We were talking about these young ladies being snatched off Prospect," he said in an interview with the Kansas City Defender.
"This young lady was snatched off Prospect."
He added that his description of the kidnapper had matched that of the suspect.
“That was the description of the guy we were talking about and that was the location we said they were being taken from," he said.
"I’m just sorry that it took so long, but I’m grateful that [the 22-year-old] found a way out.
"I’m sorry people didn’t act on it sooner, and it’s absolutely tragic that the other young ladies didn’t make it. It’s horrible," he told The Defender.
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On Saturday, Officer Donna Drake insisted that police had received no missing person reports from that area.
She told HuffPost: “There have been no reports made to our department of missing persons... from Prospect Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri.
"In order to begin a missing person’s investigation, someone would need to file a report with our department identifying the missing party.”
Haslett had been charged with first-degree rape, first-degree kidnapping, and second-degree assault.
The woman was found wearing a metal dog collar with a padlock, a trash bag, and duct tape around her neck.
She claimed to have been repeatedly raped and whipped when she was hidden in the basement with her wrists and ankles handcuffed.
Paramedics noted that the collar was restricting her ability to breathe when they removed it from her neck.
The woman said there were other victims as well who were her friends but "didn't make it."
Ciara Tharp and Lisa Johnson were neighbors of Haslett, and they found the 22-year-old when she was escaping from his basement.
"My grandma could tell she was weak," Tharp told KSHB 41 Kansas City.
One neighbor contacted the police, who then began their investigation.
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"She didn't have a whole lot of clothes on. She said she had a metal dog collar around her neck and could see the ligature marks around her wrists."
Johnson believed the woman to be malnourished, claiming she likely didn't weigh more than 100 pounds.
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