A worried ex-wife, a pair of broken bondage cuffs and a girlfriend’s desperate search for help.
The story of what led a woman in Texas to ring a doorbell in the middle of the night and then disappear last week became more disturbing as police on Thursday revealed further details they had uncovered in their investigation.
The woman’s deceased boyfriend was identified as 49-year-old Dennis Ray Collins, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest, police said.
On Thursday night, she had been tied up by Collins and sexually assaulted, she told police. She managed to break free of her restraints and ring the doorbell of two neighbors, one of which had a surveillance camera that recorded her.
The woman told authorities that the broken restraints that could be seen on her wrists in the video were those commonly used in “private intimate encounters,” police said.
When the neighbors did not answer the ring, she returned to Collins’ house and left for Dallas, Texas, shortly after to be with her family.
Collins’ ex-wife contacted police on Wednesday morning and told them she recognized the woman in the video and it was her ex-husband’s girlfriend, authorities said.
The ex-wife told police that Collins had sent her text messages that made her worry that he may hurt himself. She was at the home when police arrived on scene.
The girlfriend, who is not being identified because police said she is a domestic violence victim, was confirmed through multiple pieces of evidence as the one who had gone barefoot and semi-dressed from house to house in the neighborhood for help, officials said. She is still with family in Dallas, recovering from the ordeal.
“She’s very distraught about this, she’s embarrassed, she’s upset, she’s in shock that it’s come to this, so we’re giving her her time and we’re staying in communication with her to get further details,” Lieutenant Scott Spencer of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said.
In his suicide note, Collins wrote that he was aware of the national attention and the existence of the surveillance camera video and admitted he was responsible for the state she was in, police said. They added that their investigation would look into sexual assault, kidnapping and unlawful restraint.
From the day the 7-second video went viral, concerned people the world over were hooked to the hunt for the woman’s identity and for clues to her story. Police said they were not surprised by the worldwide attention.
“Looking at the video itself, it’s alarming when you see somebody come up to a door at 3 o’clock in the morning in those conditions,” said Spencer. “I think it’s great that not only the public but the world took interest and tried to make sure that she was safe.”
