A missing college student was found in the basement of a man’s home almost a week after she was last seen on surveillance footage leaving her dormitory.
Investigators rescued the 19-year-old at the home of Brent Brown, 39, who initially told police that he was alone in the house in Utah, US.
The teenager is said to have been naked and covered in coal when the dramatic rescue took place after officers spotted a slight, blonde-haired person in the basement of the home.
Officials told the Salt Lake Tribune this prompted them to obtain a search warrant.
During the search, police found her Snow College ID card in the property so they searched the cellar, where the traumatised student was found hidden in the coal room.
Brown reportedly told detectives that he tied her up and took away her phone as part of a sexual role-play.
But she said that she was held against her will and was coerced into having sex with him because he threatened her family.
She said she felt forced to comply with his demands after he revealed that he knew her family’s home address and threatened harm against her parents and siblings.
Court documents suggest the lady and Brown met online, in a group chat on the Kik app, and she had agreed to meet with him on December 13.
On the morning of Tuesday, December 14, she sent her family members a text that simply said “I love you!” before her phone was confiscated by Brown.
The out-of-the-blue text prompted her family to contact the police and her college roommates also reported her disappearance to authorities.
She was officially declared missing the following day.
Signals from her phone helped police to track down her location to Loa, a town with around 500 people in the state of Utah.
Brown is being held on suspicion of aggravated kidnapping, rape, object rape and obstruction of justice, according to the Salt Lake Tribune,
Snow College Police Chief Derek Walk said on Sunday at a news conference: “We don’t have a lot of information about him.
“We met him for the first time last night. We don’t know how extensive his relationship or her knowledge of him is thus far.”
He added: “This is an ongoing investigation.
“There are certain aspects we are still digging into and trying to understand fully.”