Desperate Facebook Plea Saves Woman, Boy Held Captive for Days - East Idaho News
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Desperate Facebook Plea Saves Woman, Boy Held Captive for Days

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GETTY N 032211 LawEnforcementCuffsGun?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1324924715951Comstock/Thinkstock(SANDY, Utah) — A Utah woman and her 17-month-old son are safe after allegedly being held captive and abused for days by her ex-boyfriend.

Troy Critchfield, 33, has been charged with kidnapping, sodomy, and child abuse after allegedly taking the woman’s phone and holding her hostage. But the woman was able to sneak a laptop into a closet and post an urgent message for help on Facebook, perhaps saving the pair from further terror.

“He had had her locked up in the house without any communication for the past four-to-five days, where he had been assaulting her physically as well as sexually,” Sandy City Police Sgt. John Arnold told ABC News Radio on Sunday, adding, “this was all being done in the presence of their kids.”

Friends and family alerted police after seeing the woman’s desperate plea for help, a note that said she and her son would be dead by Christmas.

“It is a very good thing that people were paying attention and were able to make contact with us,” Arnold said.

“Sometimes social media’s been very helpful in trying to get information out, and in this situation it was good for her to be able to get information out to family and friends.”

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

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