Woman Found Chained, Handcuffed Inside Abandoned Chicago Home: Police

CHICAGO — Police freed a 36-year-old woman from an abandoned house on Chicago’s Far South Side on Saturday after a neighborhood resident said he heard her crying for help.

Antione Dobine, who lives in the West Pullman neighborhood, said in a Facebook Live video that he was out with a neighbor when he heard someone inside the home crying for help and pounding on the window of the home.

The home, which is located in the 11900 block of Eggleston Avenue, has been abandoned and boarded up, he said. But after Dobine heard the woman crying for help, he said he called 911 and alerted police that the woman needed help. He later said in the Facebook Live video posted to his personal account that the woman had been sexually assaulted twice by a man she met while walking to the grocery store.

Dobine said that police told him the woman had been held inside the home for four to five days and police said that the woman indicated she knew her captor.

Police said that the woman was found inside the home and taken to Little Company of Mary Hospital in good condition. Police did not say if the woman had been the victim of any crimes, but an officer told Dobine on the Facebook Live video that the woman had been found handcuffed and chained inside the home. Police have said she has since been released from the hospital.

Dobine did not immediately respond to an interview request by Patch on Monday.

The Facebook Live video, which was posted to Dobine’s account on Saturday evening and lasted more than 40 minutes, has garnered more than 800,000 views since. Dobine has since started a fund-raising effort to help provide shelter for women in abusive relationships and who are victims of sex trafficking.

Dobine said on the Facebook Live video that he and his neighborhood group are trying to bring more attention to abandoned homes in the West Pullman neighborhood that need more care.

“You have the money,” Dobine told NBC Chicago. “You have all of these entities you can use for us to build our community, and it’s all about us building that community.”

Dobine told police that he saw someone running for the home, but police said that they are continuing to search for the person wanted in connection with the alleged assault.