San Diego

Police are seeking an Encanto man who they suspect has repeatedly kidnaped women and kept them prisoner in his home for as long as four months while he and other men sexually molested them.

Ronald Martin Gabriel, 33, is being sought on charges of sexual assault, false imprisonment and perversion, police said. He was not home when officers with a search warrant went to his house Wednesday and found tools of sexual torture including collars, chains and whips in a rear bedroom, police said.

Police were alerted by two women who said they were raped and beaten in the house during the last year and a half. At least two other women came forward independently with similar stories after police started making inquiries at the end of June, said police Sgt. C.T. Martin .

“He did a mental job on them, not only physical,” Martin said. “When victims would get away, he would find them and bring them back.” He said even victims whom Gabriel released “felt compelled to check in with him and do what he told them.”

Another man who lives in the house, Edward J. Vickers, 27, was arrested there by police Wednesday and charged with rape. Police are looking for the other men who victims said were brought to the house and molested them.

Gabriel’s wife and 13-year-old son also live in the house, along with three other women, one of whom has a 2-year-old child, Martin said. He said those residents were not suspects in the case.

But he said “we have a little problem with them. They say they don’t know and didn’t see and didn’t hear (the alleged incidents).”

The victims, all from the San Diego area and in their late 20s, were afraid Gabriel would kill them, Martin said.

Police spokesman Bill Robinson said Gabriel is known to frequent three bars in the University Avenue area and has been seen driving a motorcycle, a yellow pickup truck and a red pickup truck.