Abducted Woman Rescued After Being Caged Wearing Dog Collar For Two Months

Joelle Lockwood, who was abducted from her home in Evansville, Indiana, has been found. She had been kept in a makeshift wooden cage by her captors for over two months.

The abductors, Kendra Tooley, 44, and Ricky House, Jr, 37, allegedly built a cage inside their mobile home and used it to confine Lockwood following her kidnapping. According to Ronald Higgs, Tooley’s ex-husband who came to visit, Lockwood had only a t-shirt and a dog collar on in the cage, when he went to the trailer last Thursday.

Lockwood apparently told Higgs that she was being held against her will, and when he returned the next day in an attempt to buy her freedom, it didn’t work.

“The whole time during it all they was talking about a baby. ‘She’s not leaving here until she has the baby. I’m not selling her, you’re not taking her, you’re not doing nothing.’ I hate to say this to the public or even her even hearing it, but I think they were just going to have a baby and we would never see her again,” Higgs told Tristate Homepage.com.

When Higgs tried to leave with Lockwood, he said House became violent, began beating Lockwood and pulled out a shotgun,

“He stuck that shotgun right here under my chin with his finger on the trigger. He said ‘I’m going to kill you.’ I said if you’re going to kill me you better do it now or I’m going to take this away from you and beat you to death with it,” Higgs said.

Higgs said he then headbutted House and went into the other room to rescue Lockwood. He convinced Tooley that he wouldn’t tell the police if she let the pair escape, and when she agreed, Lockwood and Higgs made a quick escape from the mobile home.

On Saturday, the Posey County Sheriff’s Office and Evansville Police Department served a warrant at the home and took Tooley and House into custody. As it stands, the couple will be formally charged with rape and criminal confinement on Monday, police said.

Higgs told reporters, “I’m 61 years old and I don’t even cry at funerals, but I busted out crying like a baby. I told the police last night I hope you all have some real small cells. That’s where they need to spend the rest of their lives, in a real small cell.”