A Florida woman who said she had been held captive for several months was rescued last week after a sandwich shop worker found the crumpled note she left behind begging for help.
Deputies with the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office were called to a Jersey Mike’s Subs in Navarre, about 66 miles west of Panama City Beach, on May 27 after a suspicious note was found in the bathroom.
The note was written by a woman who said she was being held against her will at a nearby home and feared for her life, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
Employee Eleanor Coffee told Pensacola station WEAR-TV that she found the note in the store’s bathroom.
“There was this little piece of crumpled up paper that was shoved next to our toilet paper dispenser,” she said.
Coffee said she opened up the paper and saw the alarming note.
“She was like, please help me, I’m at this address in Navarre, I need you to call the police and do a wellness check,” Coffee told the news station.
She told her manager and they called 911. Coffee could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday.
The woman left her name and address on the note, the sheriff’s office told the news station.
Deputies used surveillance video, former case records and witness interviews to identify the suspect as Jordan Williams. The sheriff’s office said in its news release that Williams, 34, and the unidentified victim “have a documented history with our agency of domestic violence incidents.”
A search warrant was executed at Williams’ listed address, where deputies found the victim. The woman told police that she had been abused, assaulted, threatened with a weapon, and “held in isolation by Williams for a span of several months,” the news release states.
The woman had visible injuries, authorities said, and was taken to the hospital for treatment of suspected broken bones and other trauma.
Williams was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment, battery and battery by strangulation. He was booked into the county jail. It’s not clear if he has obtained an attorney.
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