EXCLUSIVE: ‘Dehydrated, bleeding and super-skinny.’ Barefoot woman who escaped Missouri sex dungeon looked like she came from a horror movie, says nurse who helped rescue her – as cops investigate whether captor killed other women
- Police have confirmed detectives are now ‘actively’ investigating whether Missouri man Timothy Haslett had other victims
- It comes after the 39-year-old was charged with keeping a 22-year-old woman as his sex slave in the basement of his Excelsior Springs home for nearly a month
- She had a metal collar padlocked to her neck and was only able to escape when her abuser took his son to school on Friday October 7
- The emaciated woman hurtled barefoot out of the rundown property and fled 100 yards outside the home of nurse Lisa Johnson, 41, who she asked for help
- ‘It was such a soft, “help me”,’ Johnson told DailyMail.com. ‘She looked like something out of a horror movie’
- When Johnson told the woman she was calling police, she panicked and warned her captor would kill her and claimed he had killed her two friends
- The victim then fled next door to the home of Ciara Tharp, whose grandmother was watching her son and took her in
- Tharp said: ‘She actually said the guy killed more than just two. She said it was her friends, but she wasn’t clear if something happened to them there’
Timothy Haslett of Excelsior Springs, Missouri, is charged with rape, kidnapping and assault for allegedly keeping a 22-year-old woman as his sex slave in his basement
The sex slave held for a month in a basement torture dungeon with a metal collar tight around her neck frantically insisted to rescuers that her captor ‘killed two of my friends,’ DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.
And now police have confirmed that detectives are taking the claim seriously and are ‘actively investigating’ whether other women met their death at the hands of Missouri monster Timothy Haslett.
The young woman, still bleeding from wounds caused by being whipped and restrained, seized her chance to escape the house of horrors when alleged captor Timothy Haslett, 39, took his son to school last week.
She hurtled barefoot out of the rundown rental property in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, and fled 100 yards downhill along a street diagonally facing the home in a quiet part of the 10,000-strong community 30 miles from Kansas City.
Fearfully crouching down, the emaciated 22-year-old approached the single family home of nurse Lisa Johnson and softly uttered just two words – ‘help me.’
Johnson, 41, who had been sitting inside by her front door getting ready for work at 7:40am on October 7, heard the desperate plea.
She looked out and saw the victim begin to crawl up the outside steps to the house she shares with city council worker husband Thomas, 37.
Nurse Lisa Johnson (pictured with her husband Thomas) called 911 after the emaciated woman fled to her doorstep and begged for help
Law enforcement has erected a fence around Haslett’s rundown rental property where he had allegedly been holding the woman captive since September
The victim said she was only able to escape on Friday October 7, when Haslett, 39, took his child to school
‘It was such a soft, “help me”,’ Johnson told DailyMail.com. ‘And I looked out through our clear screen door and this girl was hunched along the steps.
‘I could see immediately she was in desperate trouble – she looked like something out of a horror movie.
‘She had a metal home-made device tight around her neck, there was duct tape that she had pulled down off her face which had been covering her mouth.
‘Her wrists and ankles were messed up. You could tell she had been tied and whipped. The wounds over her body, wrists and ankles were actually bleeding.’
Johnson, who specializes in home health care, continued: ‘She was wearing a very, very short black latex dress, which appeared opened up in places, you could plainly see what she had been through.
‘And she was clearly dehydrated and very malnourished – super skinny, she was maybe no more than 70lbs. Short hair, although not matted, not dirty.
‘There were no tears. I honestly believe she was too dehydrated to produce them.’
When Johnson told the woman she was calling police, it sent a shudder down the victim’s spine even though she was desperately seeking sanctuary.
‘She said if I called the cops, he would kill both of us,’ said Johnson.
‘I said, who? She said, the guy up the street.
‘She said he had been holding her, wouldn’t let her go. And that he was going to kill her and he had killed her two friends.’
By the time Johnson had come back out of her home after calling 911, she saw the terrified woman slipping away off her driveway to her next-door neighbor.
The home is now boarded up and cordoned off with crime scene tape behind a chain link fence
After entering the property, Excelsior Springs Police officers said they found a room in the basement consistent with what the victim had described
The exterior of the home was also in bad shape, with trash, old ice coolers, and other items strewn across the yard
A child’s trampoline was also found in the yard of Haslett’s house. His son had been reportedly staying at the home with him days before his arrest
‘She hadn’t said anything more about her friends, or where she believed they had been killed,’ the nurse said.
‘But she had no reason to lie about that. So I do believe her – and somewhere, out there definitely could be more victims.’
The woman fled to the home of Ciara Tharp, 39, whose grandmother was looking after her young son.
‘Grandma said she was sitting here and she heard a lady yelling,’ Tharp told DailyMail.com.
‘So she opened the door and the girl ran up and said, “you’ve got to help me, I’ve been held captive, I’ve been raped, you’ve got to help me, he’s going to end up killing me”.
‘My grandma brought her in, wrapped a blanket around her and went and got her some food and water. She was pretty hungry. And my grandma sat with her and held her until the police came.
‘She told her, “my friends didn’t make it, he killed my friends”.’
Tharp continued: ‘The girl said he had kept her down in his basement and when he left, she assumed to take his son to school, she opened up the door. She let his dog run out the door and she just took off.
‘She actually said the guy killed more than just two. She said it was her friends, but she wasn’t clear if something happened to them up there at the house of wherever he got her from or elsewhere.
‘It’s scary. The girl is lucky to be alive. She’s got to be so brave.’
Tharp said her grandmother – who does not want to be named publicly – revealed the woman was at times gasping for breath because the metal collar around her neck was so tight.
Fearing her captor would kill her after Johnson decided to call the police, the woman fled next door to the home of Ciara Tharp, 39, who grandmother was watching her son at the time
Tharp told DailyMail.com her grandmother brought the victim into the home (pictured) and gave her food, water, and a blanket to keep warm until the police arrived
‘I believe it was like one of those that has the prongs on the inside,’ said Tharp. ‘Police cut it off because she was having trouble breathing.
‘She was frantic. She said she had been in the house since early September. My grandma said the facts never changed – what she told her was exactly what she told the officers. She told them exactly who did it, what house.’
Previously, Excelsior Springs Police had said officially it had no knowledge of any more victims.
But a spokesman has now told DailyMail.com exclusively: ‘We are taking this accusation of two more women victims seriously and are actively investigating it.’
He would not go into further detail.
Haslett is alleged to have picked up the woman from the Prospect Avenue area of Kansas City, an area notorious for prostitution.
He was arrested on October 7, on his way back from taking his son to school in his gray Dodge Ram pick-up truck. Cops hauled him in via a traffic stop on an unrelated animal control violation – after the victim had identified his home to officers.
The former railroad construction worker pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to first degree rape, first degree kidnapping and second-degree assault.
He made an appearance at Clay County Court via video link and is now being held on a $500,000 bond.
An Excelsior Springs Police probable cause statement said of the victim: ‘She was wearing latex lingerie and had a metal collar around her neck with a padlock…
Police were still conducting door-to-door inquiries in the area on Thursday. Authorities confirmed they are now actively investigating whether Haslett may have had other victims
‘She advised Timothy had kept her in a small room in the basement that he had built. He kept her restrained in handcuffs on her wrists and ankles…
‘The victim further advised that Timothy had whipped her while she was restrained. There were injuries on the victim’s back that were consistent with this description. The victim advised that Timothy had raped her multiple times and frequently while she was held as a hostage…
‘Upon entering the residence to clear it, Excelsior Springs Police officers observed a room in the basement consistent with what the victim had described.
Haslett has numerous firearms in his residence.’
The accused kidnapper married Lindsay Metcalfe, 33, in 2013 in Independence, Missouri, but the couple divorced in February, 2016, according to records obtained by DailyMail.com.
Haslett had joint custody of his eight-year-old son and became the primary custodial parent.
The boy was in the home while his alleged crimes were taking place, according to close neighbors who spoke to DailyMail.com.
Dee Delana who lives next door to Haslett, told us: ‘The boy has been staying with him and was there the week before he was arrested.
Haslett’s next-door neighbor Dee Delana described him as a ‘definite loner’
‘It’s chilling to think about that.’
Delana, 48, who has lived near Haslett for nearly seven years with husband Curt, 53, described the accused as a ‘definite loner’.
She said: ‘He had no real friends to speak of – definitely no girlfriends.
‘He was strange, although I would not label him as the kind of person who was guilty of the crimes he is accused of.
‘We saw no sign of any girl over there. Nothing at all.
‘Oddly though, he had a habit of keeping his truck parked out on the road during the week, but every Friday he’d move it to the back of his property on the driveway in front of his garage.
‘Then on Sunday night he would shift it back to the front. We thought that was strange.’
Haslett told Delana he was quitting work in 2020 due to a heart condition. And immediately afterwards she noticed he was received multiple parcel deliveries every day.
‘It was nonstop,’ she told DailyMail.com. ‘UPS, Amazon, FedEx, so many deliveries, up to four a day. There was always something getting delivered.’
All the windows and doors in Haslett’s home was boarded up when DailyMail.com visited. Police crime tape surrounded it, along with a perimeter fence erected by law enforcement.
A large kid’s trampoline was in the yard and in the back, where he parked his truck at weekends, there are mounds of junk and other detritus. Excelsior Springs Police said: ‘Everything outside is as we found it. It is still very much an active crime scene.’
Officers were still conducting house-to-house inquiries on Thursday.
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