Nova Scotia

Chained teen 'resilient,' says man who helped save him

While the manhunt continues for a Nova Scotia man accused of sexually assaulting and confining a teenager, the man who helped the alleged victim says the boy is doing well and recovering.

Boy returned to area where he was allegedly confined for 2 weeks

Reunion for N.S. chained teen and rescuer

12 years ago
Duration 1:41
A teen who was allegedly chained up in a house in has spoken to the man who helped save him.

The 16-year-old boy who was allegedly sexually assaulted and chained up in a house in Nova Scotia is doing well and recovering, said the man who helped him escape from the area.

David James Leblanc, 47, and Wayne Alan Cunningham, 31, were charged after the teenager escaped from a house on Faulkner Road in Upper Chelsea, Lunenburg County.

Terry Frauzel said he heard knocking on the door Sunday night, almost a week after the teen arrived distressed, half-naked and with chains wrapped around his ankles and wrists.

This time the teenager stood in the doorway with his mother.

Frauzel told CBC News the teen wanted to go back to visit the building on Faulkner Road where he had been held for close to two weeks.

He stopped in to thank the man who helped him escape.

Frauzel said they all hugged like old friends.

"He was still very grateful for what we had done, and certainly his mother was."

Wayne Alan Cunningham, left, 31, and David James Leblanc, 47, are facing forcible confinement and sexual assault charges. Leblanc was arrested Sunday; Cunningham is still at large. (RCMP)

"He was quite resilient. He just acted normal. He's obviously been through a lot and there's a lot to come, but up to this point he seems to be handling it quite well … he's destined to go places."

Frauzel said the teen told him he was living on the streets in Halifax when Cunningham and Leblanc offered him a job.

"He came across as a very polite and very articulate person for his age. He doesn't belong on the streets, he belongs with his family like everybody else," he said.

Frauzel said the teenager has now been reunited with his mother.

"Things can happen. All of us who have had children have to make decisions one way or another and sometimes it doesn't work out the way we would like it."

Leblanc was arrested earlier this week in Ontario on the sexual assault and forcible confinement charges. He is awaiting transport back to Nova Scotia.

Cunningham has not been located yet.