A Utah college student who went missing after leaving her dorm room a week ago to meet a man from an online fetish chatroom, was rescued by the police from the home of her alleged kidnapper, where she was found naked and covered in coal in the basement.
Law enforcement officials arrested 39-year-old Brent Brown in connection with the disappearance of Madelyn Allen, a 19-year-old Snow College student from Ephraim. He now faces charges of obstruction of justice, aggravated kidnaping, rape and object rape.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Brown took away Allen’s wallet and phone, and tied her up while he was at work, later claiming that it was part of kidnapping role-play.
During a press conference on Saturday night, Allen’s overjoyed parents recounted how they fell to their knees after getting a call from the police, telling them their daughter has been found alive.
Allen met Brown in a group chat on the messaging app KIK and agreed to have him pick her up in Ephraim on December 13, the affidavit stated.
Snow College security video showed Allen leaving her dormitory after 9.20pm last Monday.
When Allen failed to return home the next morning, her roommates filed a missing person reported, reported The Salt Lake City Tribune.
Investigators learned that Allen has been struggling with depression and anxiety, and that she used dating apps. A search of her phone records revealed text message exchanges of a violent sexual nature, according to the affidavit.
While police were looking for Allen, she was at Brown’s home in Loa, nearly 90 miles away, where, according to the court records, the relationship between the college student and her date became nonconsensual and violent.
The affidavit stated that Brown took away Allen’s Phone, allowing her only to text her family the words ‘I love you!’ on December 14 – a message that alarmed her parents and siblings, prompting them to go to the authorities.
Brown allegedly tied up Allen while he was at work, took away her wallet and threatened to ‘come after her family and sister’ if she were to tell anyone about him.
After Brown learned that police were looking for Allen, he threw away her phone, but not before the authorities were able to use cellphone tower data associated with her December 14 text message to track her to Loa.
As police officers were scouring the small town of 500 inhabitants, according to the affidavit, they spotted a petite woman with blonde her in the basement of a home on Main Street.
When they knocked on the door, asking about Allen, the man who answered – later identified as Brown – told them he was alone in the house and refused to let them in without his parents’ permission, the documents stated.
Officials obtained a search warrant and entered the home on Saturday, where they located a Snow College identification card belonging to the missing student. During a subsequent search of the residence, police found Allen alive in the coal room in the cellar, naked and covered in coal.
The affidavit stated that police officers found Brown to be in possession of a gun and three knives, reported Gephardt Daily.
Under questioning, Brown allegedly admitted to meeting Allen in a slave domination fetish group on KIK, and picking her up on December 13, reported ABC4.
Brown also reportedly said that he took away Allen’s phone, kept her tied up to prevent her from leaving and threatening her family, but he claimed it was all part of their sexual role play involving a kidnapping scenario, according to KSL-TV.
Authorities, however, said that Allen was being held against her will.
According to the affidavit, Allen confirmed to the police that she had communicated with a KIK user by the nickname ‘Cowboy’ and agreed to meet with him on December 13 at Snow College.
Allen said that after Allen brought her to his home in Loa, he made her strip naked and prohibited her from putting her clothes back on for the entire duration of her captivity.
According to the affidavit, the following morning, after Brown took away her phone, Allen became concerned that she would not be allowed to leave. She said Brown always had a large knife on his belt.
The 19-year-old student claimed that her alleged captor raped her several times a day, even though she did not want to have sex with him, and that he once choked her.
Allen said she did not try to leave because Brown knew her family’s address and had made threats against them.
She said that Brown told her he had mailed her phone to the southern border so that nobody could find her, and later claimed that police had stopped looking for her.
Following her dramatic rescue, the 19-year-old was taken to a hospital for a checkup, after which she was reunited with her family.
During a press conference on Saturday announcing Allen’s rescue, her parents, Jonathan and Taunya, spoke of their gratitude and relief at having their daughter back,
‘We got the phone call and [the police chief] said, “I have her.” We dropped to our knees,’ Jonathan Allen, said. ‘We were so grateful, elated. We couldn’t describe the feelings that we had as we embraced each other.’
Her uncle, Jacob Allen said Madelyn has been through a ‘dangerous and traumatic’ ordeal, but she is a ‘fighter’ and a survivor.
On Sunday, Allen’s family held two candlelight vigils as part of ‘gatherings of gratitude’ to celebrate her rescue.
