Police rescue 23-year-old Ohio woman held hostage in garage for days by serial kidnapper
By: Police rescued a woman who was held hostage in a garage for days.
A convicted kidnapper was accused of holding the 23-year-old woman against her will for four days in Akron, Ohio.
Police body-cam video captured the arrest and rescue. A WEWS reporter spoke with the woman's mother, who said her daughter was beaten beyond recognition.
Authorities arrested William Mozingo Junior, who was heard on the video, continuing to profess his love for 23-year-old Chloe Jones before he was taken to jail. Jones carefully crawled down from a ladder from a plywood platform inside the garage, where police were waiting.
"He would cuddle her in between beatings," Jones' mother, Jessi Barham told WEWS.
Barham said Mozingo Junior beat her daughter with a baseball bat and fists and even threatened to slit her throat.
"He doused her in gasoline and was threatening to catch her on fire," Barham told the outlet.
Jones didn't feel comfortable talking about her experience. Her mother showed WEWS a picture of her daughter, showing her eyes ened and swollen shut.
Barham told the station that Jones had been missing for four days and called from the hospital.
"She said that she had been abducted, she said she had a broken arm and her face had fractures," Barham explained to the outlet.
The homeowner called 911, and said Mozingo Junior and Jones were discovered by her husband five hours earlier. The homeowner, who called Mozingo Junior their good friend, declined an interview with WEWS, but claimed she met the young woman on more than three occasions. Jones, however, disputed the claim.
"He used to live here. He paroled here at one time before he went back," the homeowner told WEWS.
"Had a conversation online, she was going to go hang out with him, she, actually, I found out she got a ride to his place," Barham told the station.
Mozingo Junior had been in prison three times for kidnapping, twice in Stark County, Ohio. He also spent time at Lorain Correctional for drug possession.
"My daughter is never going to be the same - her life as she knows it is over because he was allowed to walk out on these streets and that is not acceptable," Barham told the outlet.
Mozingo Junior faces charges including kidnapping, unlawful restraint and felonious assault.