Kidnapped woman escapes closet she was locked in for two months

Police says victim was provided very limited food and no bathroom facilities

A Tennessee woman is belived to have been kept captive in a closet for two months by her boyfriend before she managed to escape.

The 40-year-old woman had facial cuts and weighed under 100 pounds when she was found, the Dyersburg police department said on Wednesday.

Officers were alerted to a possible domestic complaint when a man who worked in the area informed authorities that the woman approached him and informed about being kidnapped weeks earlier.

The police responded to the scene and found the woman hiding under a construction home nearby.

The woman said she was forced to stay in a closet that was locked by “some type of locking device with a cable and was only allowed out of the closet for an hour a day”. She was provided very limited food and no bathroom facilities, according to the police.

Officers were able to locate the vacant house on Ayers Street where the woman was held captive, the police said. “Evidence found included human waste inside the residence as described by the victim.”

The woman was treated and released from West Tennessee Healthcare Dyersburg.

The victim identified her alleged captor as 30-year-old Brenton Bell. She said they were in a relationship that turned “physically abusive” and led to her being captive.

The man was arrested on Wednesday evening on Moss Street. He faces an aggravated kidnapping charge, police said.

Meanwhile, a Kentucky man, who was wanted in Mississippi for kidnapping, was captured last week, the Lee County Sheriff’s Department said.

Deputies responded to a 911 call around 9am regarding a possible kidnapping. The victim said 52-year-old Douglas Mills, her biological father, kidnapped her three children.

Mills broke into the victim’s home and threatened her with a gun before kidnapping the children, the police said. He has been charged with home invasion, burglary and three counts of kidnapping.