A man in Arizona is facing several charges after his girlfriend reported to the authorities that she managed to escape from a shed where he had kept her and assaulted her for several days.
On the afternoon of July 2, police received a 911 call from a residence in the area where 36-year-old Timothy James Wood resided, according to a report by KTVK. The caller, who identified herself as Wood’s girlfriend, claimed that he had confined her in a shed located behind his father’s house. She alleged that she was kept captive by having a tow strap tied around her ankle, with the shed’s double doors chained and bricks placed outside to secure it.
According to her account to the police, Wood assaulted her when she resisted his sexual advances and forced her to wear makeup to conceal the injuries on her face. She also reported that he struck her with an electrical cord and inflicted a cut on her foot with a wood saw.
She further said that he knelt on her neck while threatening to kill her and at one point buried her in a crawl space beneath the shed for two days.
Court documents say she was finally able to escape the shed through a rear access door that he left unlocked. She fled to a neighbor’s home and called 911.
Police who responded to the call noted several visible injuries to her face and other parts of her body, including bite marks. Hospital staff confirmed other injuries, including a broken rib.
Wood was arrested and charged with kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, sexual assault, criminal threat, assault, and aggravated assault.
“She was frantic. She was scared to death that he was going to find her and kill her,” the neighbor where the victim fled told KSAZ. “She had two black eyes, and then she had a cut right in here. She had a bruise on her head. She had a bruise on her leg.”
“You could tell she hadn’t been taken care of, hadn’t showered. She was kind of, you know, dirty and stuff,” the neighbor said.
In court, Wood denied the allegations, claiming the woman “just got out of the loony bin.”
“I don’t know. It’s in Mesa. I guess she has these episodes, and when she has an episode, I’m supposed to call her mom,” he said. I wasn’t home at the time. When I got home, the police were there, and this all just kind of broke out.”
Investigators, however, said they found evidence corroborating the victim’s story, including tow straps and a mattress in the shed. A forensice nurse said the woman’s injuries were consistent with her story, KTVK said.
Wood was ordered held on a $150,000 cash-only bail, KSAZ reported.
