UNNAMED GIRL - 16 yo (~2009)/ Accused: Steven Johnson and Owida Johnson - St. Louis MO/ Washington Park IL

Missing teen escapes captors after 3 years of rape, abuse, police say

11:53 a.m. CDT, August 24, 2012

WASHINGTON PARK— A teenage girl from Missouri reported missing more than three years ago told police she escaped from an Illinois home where she was held captive and subjected to sexual assaults that resulted in a child.

About two dozen members of a SWAT team wearing body armor and tactical gear raided the home Thursday afternoon in southwestern Illinois' Washington Park, taking into custody a 24-year-old man and his mother.

"The conditions in there were definitely deplorable," St. Clair County State's Attorney Brendan Kelly, the county's top prosecutor, told The Associated Press on Friday after consulting with investigators at the scene.

Police also recovered the 19-year-old's young child, who the girl said was the result of rape by her captor. The 2-year-old was taken away in an ambulance.

No charges have been filed, though Kelly said he anticipated investigators would submit reports for his review later in the day.

Washington Park Police Chief David Clark said Friday that the teen went to the house voluntarily after meeting her alleged captor socially, but was not allowed to leave when she wanted to go home.

Police in St. Louis listed the teen as a missing or runaway juvenile in April 2009.

The teen told police she was held against her will and was beaten and sexually assaulted almost daily. She said she tried to escape several times but that her captor chased her down each time and forced her back to the home at gunpoint.

She told police she was able to escape this week with the help of a relative.

Police said the teen also told them she was forced by the man and his mother to give a false name in medical records during her pregnancy and when the child was born.

A neighbor, Lakeitha Smith, told local television stations that she saw the girl from time to time outside the house and never witnessed anything that would raise concern.

"I used to see her come out of the house, back and forth," Smith said. "I didn't think she was being held hostage in the house."

Long known for its strip clubs and poverty, Washington Park -- tucked on the edge of East St. Louis -- has grappled for years with corruption and violent crime punctuated by the 2010 shooting death of the village's mayor, John Thornton. A suspect in that killing was convicted in April of first-degree murder and awaits sentencing.

Washington Park, where 86 percent of the 4,200 residents are black, is in one of the state's poorest regions and twice since 2004 has filed for bankruptcy, the last time in 2009.

www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-washington-park-abduction-20120824,0,786594.story

Makes me sick to be in Illinois sometimes. This and with violence in Chicago. At least she's ok now as is her child. I hope they both get max time. There's no insanity in this case with the constant abuse for years.
That's deliberate, cold hearted and planned.

William

It will be interesting to see how this story pans out imo. The little 'gray cells' are asking if she was ever alone with a doctor or nurse that she could have asked for help from; how and when did the 'relative' know she was there in order to help her escape; could she have asked for help from the neighbor who saw her numerous times outside apparently unattended. I know, I know. These questions are always asked when someone has really been held hostage, against their will and some symbiotic relationship develops-or something like that. I just always like answers and sometimes there just aren't any.

Mother and son charged in Washington Park missing teen case

8:14 AM, Aug 26, 2012



Washington Park, IL (KSDK) - Charges have been filed against a mother and son at the center of a missing teen case in Washington Park.

25-year-old Steven Johnson faces drug and prostitution charges.
He's also being held on criminal sexual abuse charges. Johnson's mother, Owida, is also charged with child endangerment in the case.

The charges are in connection to the case of a 19-year-old woman who said she was held captive in Johnson's home for three years and repeatedly raped.

"Certainly the charges speak for themselves with the conditions that we're talking about in this particular home with the exposed wiring, vermin, and animal feces. And obviously the promotion of prostitution is not a charge that we see very often," said St. Clair County State's Attorney Brendan Kelly.

Police raided Johnson's home on Thursday after the teen showed up at the police station. In the home, officers found unsanitary conditions, causing them to charge Owida with child endangerment.

During the raid on the Johnson home, officers also removed a two-year-old child and a teenage boy to place them in protective custody.

Investigators say there could be more charges filed in the case.

http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/334923/3/Mother-and-son-charged-in-Washington-Park-missing-teen-case

Aunt: Woman made up story about being held as sex slave

Published: August 24, 2012
By CAROLYN P. SMITH — News-Democrat

WASHINGTON PARK — The aunt of the man who police say kept a 19-year-old woman against her will for two years and used her as his sex slave said the woman's story is fabricated.

Willie Mae Thomas, of Belleville, said the young woman was not held against her will and that her nephew and the woman were dating.

"The girl told him she was homeless, and she asked my sister if she could stay at her house. My sister told her to go and get her birth certificate from her mother so she could apply for public aid," Thomas said.

When she returned, the victim said that her mother had moved and she couldn't find her, Thomas said.

The 24-year-old man and his mother were arrested Thursday night at their home at 1425 N. Kingshighway in Washington Park. They are not being identified publicly, pending charges.

No charges were filed Friday and Police Chief David Clark said the investigation was continuing

Thomas said the victim, who some of the family knows as "Chantay" and some as "Ebony," said her sister, who is also jailed, used to work at the Mobil gas station next door to her house and the woman was back and forth there, not being held captive.

She also said the girl took her baby to a Washington Park pediatrician.

"This whole thing is ruining my sister's reputation. She worked as a certified nurse's assistant and she may never be able to get a job. Her husband is very sick. He has a very bad heart. She's trying to take care of him and work, too. She takes him everywhere she goes because his heart is so bad. She doesn't need this."

Charles Little, who lives across the street from the suspects, said he saw the victim walk up and down the street by herself all the time.

St. Clair County State's Attorney Brendan Kelly would not comment on whether he thought the victim was telling the truth.

Clark said Friday that the woman initially went there voluntarily but wasn't allowed to leave when she wanted to go home.

Clark said the 19-year-old St. Louis woman bolted from the home Monday and told investigators her time in captivity included almost daily beatings and sexual assaults. One of those attacks resulted in a son, now 2, rescued when a police SWAT team raided the home Thursday and arrested the 24-year-old man and his mother, Clark said.

The police chief said the three days between the teen's report and the raid on the home was largely spent substantiating her story. Clark also said investigators were working a separate sexual-assault case and lacked the manpower to go any faster.

Clark said investigators planned to have the child's DNA tested to determine whether the man is his father.

Thomas said her nephew "put the girl out and she went to the police with this story."

"(He) went and got his mother. She was working at a restaurant. She left her husband at the restaurant because they allow her to bring him to work with her so she can watch him. When she got back to the house, the police arrested her. They told her that the girl said she was being held captive," Thomas said.

Thomas said her sister is a good person and would not help her son do wrong.

"That girl came to the house within the last three years. I was on the phone talking to my sister when the girl asked her if she could stay at her house," Thomas said.

Thomas said the woman was not being held against her will.

"She's been at our family reunions and when (the suspects) had barbecues at their house, she was outside with everyone else," Thomas said.

Police recovered a baby and a boy from the home, who were turned over to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. They said the living conditions inside the home were bad. Kelly called the conditions in the home "deplorable."

As far as the filth at the house that led police to seek to condemn the building, Thomas said, "Those boys never clean up."

"My sister works all of the time. She's not at home. She came there yesterday," Thomas said. She said she's told her sister to put them out.

Read more here: http://www.bnd.com/2012/08/24/2295758/relative-of-suspects-says-woman.html#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpy