MISSOURI (Guardian) -- A 22-year-old Black woman in Missouri who escaped after a white man abducted, tortured and held her captive for weeks in a basement has said several other Black women were killed by her captor – less than a month after police dismissed community concerns about a serial killer as “completely unfounded”.
The woman, who has not been named, escaped on October 7 after about a month in captivity, still wearing a metal collar locked with a padlock that authorities had to remove.
She told Kansas City police that 39-year-old Timothy M Haslett had imprisoned her in a basement room in Excelsior Springs – a city just north-east of Kansas City – where he whipped and raped her repeatedly. She escaped while Haslett was dropping his child off at school, and she sought help from neighbors whom she told that her friends “did not make it out” and were killed by Haslett.
Around the time she went missing, several prominent community leaders raised concerns about the disappearance of multiple Black women and girls. Last month, the Kansas City Defender, a nonprofit newsroom, published a video of Bishop Tony Caldwell saying that he had received information that the missing women had all been kidnapped from Prospect Avenue in Kansas City.
The police dismissed the concerns outright as “completely unfounded”, saying in a statement that “there is no basis to support this rumor”.
In fact the survivor, who is referred to as TJ in court documents, said Haslett picked her up on Prospect Avenue in early September.
Haslett, a scruffy looking white man with dark brown hair and a graying beard, was detained and last week pleaded not guilty to charges including rape, kidnap and assault.
Excelsior Springs police are now investigating the possibility that at least two more women were similarly victimized.
Bishop Caldwell told the Defender: “That was the description of the guy we were talking about and that was the location we said they were
being taken from. That’s exactly what we were telling people. I’m sorry people didn’t act on it sooner, and it’s absolutely tragic that the other young ladies didn’t make it. It’s horrible.
“A lot of times we are even trying to give the police information so they can act on it, because the people in the street don’t trust them and now we can see that’s rightfully so.”
The case is just the latest example of a predominantly white police force refusing to take seriously reports of missing and murdered Black, Brown and Indigenous victims – especially women and girls.
Furthermore, the U.S. justice department is currently investigating Kansas City police department for alleged racism against Black officers.
Details of the woman’s ordeal are harrowing. According to the Clay county, Missouri, district attorney’s probable cause statement, TJ reported that “Timothy had kept her in a small room in the basement that he had built. He kept her restrained in handcuffs on her wrists and ankles.”
In addition, Haslett “whipped her while she was restrained,” leaving wounds “on her back that were consistent with this description,” the probable cause statement added.
After escaping about 8am on October 7, TJ sought help from neighbors, who wrapped her in a blanket, gave her food and called the police.
According to court documents, “Upon the [police] officer’s arrival at the residence, they found TJ. She was wearing latex lingerie and had a metal collar around her neck with a padlock, and duct tape around her neck. TJ advised that a man by the name of Timothy picked her up on Prospect [Avenue] in Kansas City at the beginning of September 2022.”
Kansas City police have defended their response, claiming that they were right to dismiss the concerns as rumors because they had not received any formal missing person reports. In a statement to the Defender a spokesperson said: “We do still maintain that there is no indication that what you guys reported was accurate and there was no indication that there was anything that supported that claim.”