Abuse Drives Caretaker To Terrifying Encounter With Man She Met Online

Abuse allegedly drove a 55-year-old Arkansas woman into an even more terrifying situation, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday in a Minnesota District Court.

The woman claimed that she was trying to escape a relationship of abuse, and that’s what led her to accept a caretaker position for 58-year-old New Brighton man Wolf Richard Dunne. The woman met Dunne online and told police he was suffering from prostate cancer.

But after Dunne drove the woman back to Minnesota, she alleged that he pressured her to have sex and “threatened and terrorized” her, according to a news report from Pioneer Press.

According to the language in the complaint, “The 55-year-old woman called 911 after she argued with Dunne shortly before 6:30 a.m. Tuesday. … She told police she met Dunne online about a month ago. He picked her up June 28 and she moved in with him.”

That morning, the woman said, Dunne pressured her for sex, leading to an argument. “She reported he had several guns and knives in the house and described himself as a member of the Hell’s Angels,” the report continued.

Police drove the woman to a restaurant and arranged for a driver to transport her to a shelter at 8:30 a.m. But before the driver arrived, she had left.

Dunne called and texted the woman. “She said Dunne was being nice, she had nowhere else to go, and she needed her property from his home, so she asked him to pick her up from the restaurant,” the complaint read.

Hours later, a second plea for help came from the home. The woman told police she had locked herself in the bathroom, while Dunne stood outside, threatening to shoot her.

The dispatcher reported a male voice, “speaking very loudly and rapidly,” and telling the woman he would kick the door down in three minutes.

The woman alleged Dunne resumed his terroristic threatening “immediately” after they’d returned to the home, calling her a “snitch” and using expletives.

From the complaint: “He yelled at her for calling ‘the pigs,’ got on his phone and then told her he was ‘talking to the Hell’s Angels about going after her daughter.'”

In a statement to police, Dunne said he brought the woman to Minnesota, but quickly realized “things would not work out.” Dunne said he asked her to leave and denied threatening her.

On Friday, Dunne was still being held at the Ramsey County Jail.

Typically, these harrowing “met online” scenarios target teens and pre-teens as in the recent case of a 15-year-old girl, who was reportedly having an inappropriate online relationship with a man more than twice her age. In that case, however, the parents set a trap on Facebook and were able to turn the tables.

What safety precautions have you taken with past or current online relationships, and how far would you go to escape abuse in a relationship?

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