Kidnapped woman runs to gas station after year of being held hostage, NJ officials say
.png "A kidnapped woman ran to a gas station and escaped after being held hostage for nearly a year, New Jersey prosecutors say.")
A woman seized the opportunity to run from her accused kidnapper and escaped into a nearby gas station — ending a “year-long nightmare,” officials in New Jersey say.
James W. Parrillo Jr., 57, held the woman hostage as they traveled across the country to New Jersey against her will, according to the state attorney general’s office.
He’s now facing charges of first-degree kidnapping, second-degree strangulation and aggravated assault, and third-degree criminal restraint after the woman initially encountered him at a gas station in New Mexico in February 2022, the office announced in a Feb. 17 news release.
Parrillo, who was arrested Feb. 7, goes by different names, and evidence shows there may be additional victims in other states, officials said.
McClatchy News attempted to contact an attorney listed for Parrillo on Feb. 21 and didn’t receive a response.
“The allegations, if proven, demonstrate a level of predatory conduct that poses an extreme danger to anyone who crosses paths with this defendant,” Pearl Minato, the director of the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice, said in a statement.
‘A deeply disturbing case’
According to documents filed in court, Parrillo introduced himself to the woman as “Brett Parker” at a gas station along Interstate 10 in New Mexico where he asked her for a ride to Arizona in February 2022, officials said.
She agreed to give him a ride, and they began a “voluntary” relationship for about a month when physical abuse began, according to the release. After officials said he assaulted her in California, she struggled to get out of the relationship.
While traveling across the country, Parrillo took away the woman’s phone and debit cards, keeping her isolated from family before they made it to New Jersey in December, officials said. He is also accused of using her debit cards.
In New Jersey, they stayed in a rented room inside a home in Bass River Township, in southeastern New Jersey, before she took the chance to escape two weeks later, according to prosecutors.
Sometime before fleeing Parrillo, she created an escape plan when she noticed a nearby gas station had an interior deadbolt on the door while stopping, officials said.
On Feb. 7, Parrillo attacked the woman during an argument, assaulted and choked her, officials said. The attack stopped when he realized other people were inside the home, according to prosecutors.
As a result, she ran out of the house barefoot, raced into the nearby gas station where she locked the door and told a worker she’d been kidnapped, officials said. Parrillo followed closely behind, security camera footage shows, according to prosecutors.
The woman, while wearing shorts and a shirt in 42-degree weather, was seen bolting the door as Parrillo shows up at the window and tries to get inside the gas station, according to surveillance footage shared by ABC News.
The gas station attendant called state police, who found Parrillo walking down the nearby road and arrested him, officials said. They added that Parrillo is facing another charge in connection to refusing to give a sample of his DNA.
Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin called the case “deeply disturbing” in a statement and said his office is contacting law enforcement in other jurisdictions to gain more information about Parrillo.
Anyone who has information about Parrillo is urged to call state police at 855-363-6548.
Bass River Township is about 25 miles north of Atlantic City.
This story was originally published February 21, 2023 at 11:14 AM with the headline "Kidnapped woman runs to gas station after year of being held hostage, NJ officials say."
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