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A middle-aged US couple have been arrested on suspicion
of abducting, caging, and repeatedly raping a woman in their trailer so
she would give birth to the man’s baby.
The two-month ordeal of Joelle Lockwood, from Evansville, Indiana,
began on 9 July when she was walking and accepted a lift from an old
school acquaintance, Ricky Roy House Jr. She agreed to go to the trailer
home House, 37, shared with Kendra Tooley, 44, in nearby Stewartsville.
According to court records, when Lockwood tried to leave “Ricky
placed chloroform over her mouth and nose causing her to lose
consciousness.” She awoke to find herself tied to a bed in the trailer
with her clothes cut off.
Over the following two months Lockwood was kept tied up, and
sometimes kept in a cage House built. She was repeatedly assaulted with a
belt and raped by House and Tooley and given little food or water, it
is alleged.
Lockwood’s ordeal only ended when Ron Higgs, Tooley’s former husband,
arrived at the trailer to help House fix a vehicle. Higgs was shocked
to discover Lockwood naked with a dog leash round her neck. She claimed
she was being raped and begged him not to leave her.
Higgs says he tried to “buy” Lockwood from the couple, but they
refused. “The whole time during it all they was talking about a baby.
‘She’s not leaving here until she has the baby. I’m not selling her,
you’re not taking her, you’re not doing nothing.’
“She told me Ricky was raping her, making her have oral sex,” Higgs
continued. “Kendra can’t have more children and Ricky doesn’t have any
children of his own. I hate to say this to the public or even her even
hearing it, but I think they were just going to have a baby and we would
never see her again.”
Higgs returned a couple of days later to tell House he was taking
Lockwood away. According to an affidavit from a police officer: “Ronald
and Ricky then got into a heated discussion. Ricky then placed a sawed
off shotgun to Ronald’s chin and threatened to kill him. Ronald told
(House) that he would have to shoot him because he was taking (the
woman) away.”
House and was able to take Lockwood away to safety, at which point they
contacted police who raided the trailer and arrested the couple. House
and Tooley have been charged with a number of offences including rape,
conspiracy to commit rape, criminal confinement, kidnapping, battery
resulting in bodily injury and pointing a firearm.
