A 22-year-old California woman was allegedly held captive by a housemate for five months and repeatedly tortured and raped before escaping, authorities say.
The woman suffered horrific injuries including having an eye “put out”, and wounds to her tongue, nose, ear and lip, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office said.
“Very soon after moving into the house she was not allowed to leave, she was held there against her will by him and at that point was subjected to multiple assaults,” spokeswoman Mara Rodriguez told ABC7.
The woman phoned 911 after escaping from the Chino Hills residence last Thursday night. Deputies located her in a park and she was taken to a local hospital where she remains in a stable condition.
Authorities said the suspect, Peter Anthony McGuire, 59, fled the Chino Hills property before they were able to execute a search warrant.
They tracked him down to a property in Placenta, Orange County, and executed a search warrant there on Sunday morning.
Mr McGuire allegedly barricaded himself into the property before surrendering after an hours-long stand-off at around 8.30am.
SWAT team officers tore a garage door down at the property while searching for the suspect.
On Monday, Mr McGuire entered not guilty pleas to charges including kidnapping, mayhem and sodomy by use of force, the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office said in a statement.
Five of the counts include special allegations that the crimes involved infliction of great bodily injury and administering a controlled substance during a sex crime, prosecutors said.
He is due back in court on Thursday.
The victim had reportedly moved into Mr McGuire’s home before the kidnapping but when she decided to move out, he refused to let her leave, Ms Rodriguez told the Los Angeles Times.
According to the criminal complaint, Mr McGuire “Did unlawfully and maliciously deprive Jane/John Doe of a member of the body and did disable, disfigure and render it useless and did cut and disable the tongue, and put out an eye and slit the nose, ear and lip of said person.”
Associated Press contributed to this report
