Timothy Haslett Jr.Photo: Clay County Sheriff’s Office
Content warning: The following article contains disturbing descriptions of sexual assault.
In October 2022, a woman began banging on people’s doors in a neighborhood in Excelsior Springs, Mo., screaming for help. When someone finally answered, she said she’d escaped from a man’s basement after he kidnapped her, raped her and held her against her will for several weeks.
Now, the man she says committed the crimes faces multiple charges and a possible life sentence in prison if he’s convicted.
On Tuesday, a grand jury indicted Timothy Haslett Jr. on nine charges, including rape, kidnapping, sodomy, assault and child endangerment, according to apress release from the Clay County Sheriff’s Office. If he is found guilty on all charges, he faces up to five life sentences plus 36 years in prison.
He has not entered a plea. His next court appearance is next Friday.
The charges come after the woman, who has not been publicly identified, ran to a neighbor’s home and claimed a man held her against her will for several weeks in his basement and sexually assaulted her on numerous occasions before she was able to escape on Oct. 7, when he took his son to school one morning.
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“My grandma said she had a metal collar around her neck pretty tight. It was restricting her breathing,” Tharp told the outlet. “She had ligature marks on her wrists. She could tell she was pretty weak.”
“She was terrified,” Tharp continued. “She said, ‘If somebody doesn’t let me in, he’s going to find me and he’s going to kill me.’ I mean, he was not that far away. He was within a couple of minutes away.”
The child endangerment charge stems from Haslett allegedly leaving firearms unsecured with a child in his home, per the indictment.
Haslett’s public defender, Tiffany Leuty, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
However, no additional victims have been named and according to the press release, no deceased individuals were found at Haslett’s home during a search.
At the time, Excelsior Springs Police Lt Ryan Dowdy told the outlet that they were investigating what the victim said.
“We have no further victims that we are aware of at this specific moment in time,” Dowdy said. “We are still processing the warrant and that all is subject to change. She made mention of other victims, but there’s no signs of them at this time that we have found.”
Clay County Prosecutor Zachary Thompson did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Haslett is currently detained at the Clay County Detention Center and his bail has been raised to $3 million.
They are asking anyone with information on Crosdale’s whereabouts to please contact, 816 474-TIPS or atKCCrimeStoppers.com.
source: people.com
