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Excelsior Springs man pleads not guilty to binding and abusing woman for weeks in his basement

A small, white house with boarded up windows is surrounded by temporary fencing and yellow police tape.
Zach Perez
/
KCUR 89.3
A woman allegedly kidnapped and held hostage for a month in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, says Timothy Haslett Jr., locked her in a small room in the basement of his house, and bound her wrists and ankles in handcuffs. She told police he beat and raped her frequently.

A 39-year-old Excelsior Springs, Missouri, man accused of kidnapping a woman in Kansas City and holding her hostage for weeks made his first court appearance Tuesday after being charged with kidnapping, rape and second-degree assault.

A 39-year-old Excelsior Springs, Missouri, man accused of kidnapping a woman in Kansas City and holding her hostage for weeks made his first court appearance today after being charged with kidnapping, rape and second-degree assault.

Clay County Circuit Court Judge Louis Angles entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of Timothy Haslett Jr. and appointed the Office of the Public Defender to represent him.

The alleged victim told police that Haslett picked her up on Prospect Avenue in early September. She said that Haslett then locked her in a small room in the basement of his house and bound her wrists and ankles in handcuffs. She told police he beat and raped her frequently.

The woman escaped Friday morning when Haslett left the house to take a child to school, according to a probable cause statement filed by an Excelsior Springs police detective. She told police that there were two other victims.

Police took a locked metal collar off of the woman when they reached her, the probable cause statement said. She pointed out Haslett’s house on the way to a hospital.

Police found numerous firearms when they searched the house on Friday. After removing bags of possible evidence from the property, they boarded up the house.

Police are withholding comment about other possible victims, but said they were investigating Haslett for additional crimes.

I’ve been at KCUR almost 30 years, working partly for NPR and splitting my time between local and national reporting. I work to bring extra attention to people in the Midwest, my home state of Kansas and of course Kansas City. What I love about this job is having a license to talk to interesting people and then crafting radio stories around their voices. It’s a big responsibility to uphold the truth of those stories while condensing them for lots of other people listening to the radio, and I take it seriously. Email me at frank@kcur.org or find me on Twitter @FrankNewsman.
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