Woman Tells of Brutal Year as Man’s Prisoner

Police on Thursday were investigating the bizarre abduction of a woman who told authorities she was held prisoner for more than a year inside a truck camper and repeatedly raped, beaten, electrically shocked and forced to cook and clean for the man who kidnaped her, two other women and five children.

The victim--identified by Los Angeles police only as a 27-year-old Guatemalan immigrant who lived in South-Central Los Angeles--told officers that she was locked in chains inside the camper at night.

She escaped Sept. 2 after she stole a set of keys as the others slept, freed herself and called police from a nearby liquor store, investigators said.

The camper, which had been parked since January in a dirt alley behind the 4200 block of South Broadway, has not been seen since, police said. The vehicle was described as a 1960 to 1962 white and beige Ford with a green stripe.

Police released a composite drawing of the male suspect, believed to be between 40 and 44 years old. Officers said he uses at least four aliases--Manuel Moreno, Tomas Garcia, Fernando Ruiz and Dusty--and owns a collection of shotguns, rifles and handguns.

Police do not know if the two other women are accomplices or victims. They are being sought for questioning.

The children, three boys and two girls, are believed to be between 2 and 10 years old.

“When I first read the report I said, ‘Aw, come on, these things don’t happen,’ ” Newton Division Detective Dick Heidesch said. “But several of us talked to the victim independently, a counselor talked to her, and everyone is convinced she is telling the truth.”

In addition, the victim’s aunt had filed a missing person report, police said.

Detective Delia Perez said the victim claimed the man beat her and shocked her with wires attached to a battery when he did not like the food she cooked or the way she cleaned. She was not allowed to speak to outsiders and left the camper only to wash clothes and sell produce to passers-by.

“She tried to escape once before, but she was beaten,” Perez said.

Police photos of the woman taken the night she escaped show two dime-sized scars on each corner of her mouth, where she said the man shocked her when she disobeyed him. The calf of one of her legs bore an open, infected wound where she said she had been beaten.

The victim told police that she was abducted July 15, 1988, while she was waiting for a bus in South-Central Los Angeles. A woman approached her and said she knew a man who could give her a job, Perez said.

When the victim later met the woman at the camper, parked outside a South Los Angeles store, she was told to enter the vehicle to fill out a job application. She was immediately handcuffed and gagged, Perez said.

Since January the camper had been parked most of the time behind a row of run-down store-fronts on South Broadway.

Pedro Villarana, 53, who works in an upholstery shop in the area, said the man asked permission to park behind his store, promising to guard the alley at night. Villarana said the man he knew as Manuel told him he had just brought his family to Los Angeles from Mexico.

“I just thought they were poor. I felt bad for them,” he said.

Eulalia Renteria, who lives in a nearby apartment building, said she brought the family food until May, when the man told her to stop.

“He appeared superior to the women,” Renteria said. “He called them dummies, dull and idiots. That I didn’t think was normal.”

But neighbors said they never thought to call police because they did not hear arguing and the children appeared clean and happy.

In August, the suspect was hired as a handyman at the University Seventh-day Adventist Church on Martin Luther King Boulevard.

“He was clean and seemed nice,” said Deacon William Baker Sr., who hired him for $6 an hour. “He told me he was trying to feed his kids.”

Baker’s son, William Jr., 28, said he visited the man at the camper several times, but the memory of one visit stayed with him.

“He wouldn’t let me go inside . . . but he wanted to show off his gun collection,” the younger Baker said. “I saw this woman inside and she pulled back the curtains and handed the guns out a window.”

During the visit, while the man told war stories about serving in Vietnam, Baker said he could hear dishes rattling inside the camper and smelled food cooking.

“He seemed like a real nice guy,” Baker added.

Times staff writer Yolanda Rodriguez contributed to this story.