A woman has been rescued after being held captive in a cage for two months in Stewartsville, Indiana, with the help of a good Samaritan.
Mother-of-two Joelle Lockwood, 30, was reported missing in Evansville, Indiana, on 9 July, and is alleged to have been held against her will in a 0.75m tall wooden cage in a trailer in Stewartsville for two months.
Kendra Tooley, 44, and Ricky Roy House Jr, 37, have been arrested on charges of rape and criminal confinement in relation to the incident.
Lockwood owes her freedom to the actions of Tooley’s ex-husband, Ronald Higgs, who Tooley told of her slave girl in a cage when he visited the trailer on Thursday.
In an interview with local WTVW/WEHT Eyewitness News, Higgs said that Lockwood was kept in the cage wearing just a t-shirt with a belt around her neck and with “no food, no water, and nowhere to use the bathroom”.
Higgs said Lockwood pleaded with him to rescue her, but Tooley and House refused to let her leave until she had a baby. However, after a physical altercation and Higgs telling the pair that he would not go to the police he was finally able to rescue Lockwood and take her to hospital.
The police were then able to move in and arrest the two suspects.
Higgs said that people are calling him a “hero”, but insisted:
“I’m just a pure bred American that believes in freedom.”
The initial court hearing for the suspects in the disappearance of Joelle Lockwood is scheduled for 13:00 local time on Monday in Posey County.
