A contractor working on a home in the Lakes and Herd roads area of the Cowichan Valley on April 11 was shocked when he saw what looked like a person wearing a Halloween mask at the patio door just after noon.
The contractor, who asked to only be called John, said it quickly became obvious that the figure was a women who was in great distress.
He said the woman’s face was so badly beaten, and her eyes so swollen shut that he couldn’t even tell what race she was.
“She said she wanted to go to her mother’s house in Cowichan Bay, but I said she should go to the hospital right away,” John said.
“I could hear the terror in her voice and she was shaking so much that she was vibrating. She insisted on going to her mother’s so I told her to get in my van and I would take her either to her mother’s home or the hospital.”
John said that’s when he first noticed that the woman was wearing handcuffs, and was apparently trying to hide them from him.
She then told him that she was held against her will in a nearby house for three days where she was beaten.
“Her captor told her that he intended to make an example of her,” John said.
“She told me that she escaped after asking her captor if she could take a shower. She then managed to crawl through the bathroom’s window and made her way across a number of fields before ending up at the house where I was working.”
John said that he called the police after placing the woman in his van, and a police car met him a few blocks away.
“Within minutes, there were about 11 police cars and an ambulance there,” he said.
“The woman was quickly taken away in the ambulance. The police took a statement from me, but I don’t know what has happened since. the whole incident really shook me up.”
Cpl. Krista Hobday, a spokeswoman for the North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP detachment, said the police have no comment on the case “at this time.”
