Cops: Woman Held for a Year Manages to Escape Kidnapper

A woman who police say was held against her will in what's being described as a "year-long, cross-country kidnapping" escaped from the New Jersey home where she was currently being held and ran to a gas station, where she told two attendants she had been kidnapped by "Brett Parker." NJ.com reports James W. Parrillo, 57, has been arrested on charges of kidnapping, strangulation, aggravated assault, and criminal restraint. A release from the state Attorney General’s office alleges the victim met Parrillo, who introduced himself as "Brett Parker," at a New Mexico gas station in February 2022. He asked for a ride to Arizona; she agreed, and the two began a consensual relationship whose tenor changed a month later.

The two were in California at that time, and she says he put his hand on her neck; from that point on she says she felt unable to leave him: He allegedly took her phone and debit cards, severed her contact with her family, and said he would kill her and her relatives if she left. She says they arrived in New Jersey sometime in December. Roughly two weeks ago, "Brett Parker" rented a room on the second floor of a home in Bass River Township. "Noticing an interior deadbolt on the door of a nearby gas station during a prior visit, the alleged victim planned to flee to safety there when an opportunity presented itself," per the release. The woman managed to exit the home on Feb. 7 after she said Parrillo again choked her, allegedly stopping when he realized others were at home at the time.

Gas station owner Bobby Madaan tells NJ.com the woman, who was wearing shorts and a shirt with no shoes in 42-degree weather, "was shaking, she could barely get her words together." She reportedly had marks on her neck. Madaan tells CNN he saw a man running behind the woman, but that the woman managed to bolt the gas station's door before he arrived. "Footage from the station’s security camera shows Parrillo ... attempting to open the door, then leaving when he found it locked," per the release. He was apprehended by police a short time later. The state Attorney General’s office said Friday it's possible that Parrillo may have engaged in the same "predatory conduct" elsewhere. (More kidnapping stories.)