'It was something the devil would do': woman freed after 4 days of torture
WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS DISTURBING DETAILS
Bridgette Obirek calls it the work of the devil.
The Windsor, Ont., woman was visiting a friend at an apartment building on University Avenue just before midnight on May 5 when a man she hadn't seen for years came down and invited her to come up and hang out for a while.
When the door to the apartment opened, what she saw stopped her in her tracks.
"I walked in ... and here's this woman sitting on a chair facing her back toward me," she recalled. "I looked at her and the first thing I thought was 'Oh my gosh, there's blood all over the place' "
Obirek said she found herself in a nightmare. Several people were spread around the room, including a young woman who was sitting in front of the girl with a weapon — either an ice-pick or knife — pointed at her chest.
"I had my bike helmet in one hand, my cellphone in the other and my mother's little Yorkie in a dog purse. I said 'hon just grab everything you can right now' and I stayed blocking her with my arms out."- Bridgette Obirek
The girl in the chair started to cry when she saw Obirek.
"Her face was mangled, two huge black eyes, her whole face was swollen, her lip was split open, she had marks everywhere," she explained, including a "huge" gash on the back of her neck.
"She had puncture marks all over her body," Obirek added. "I noticed a huge pile of her beautiful long hair on the floor in her blood."
Blood was 'just Tabasco' sauce, they said
The people in the room told her not to worry, the deep red stains were "just Tabasco sauce" and they were taking care of the girl who was "in trouble."
Obirek said she imagined the girl in the chair as her daughter and almost blacked out. Then she said she went into fight or flight mode.
"I had my bike helmet in one hand, my cellphone in the other and my mother's little Yorkie in a dog purse," she said. "I said 'Hon, just grab everything you can right now' and I stayed blocking her with my arms out."
One of the men in the room didn't want them to leave. "She's seen too much," Obirek recalled him saying. But when she pulled out her cellphone and pretended to call her boyfriend and boxer brother-in-law — lying that they were waiting outside — he backed off.
Obirek told the girl to run and followed after her as she slammed the elevator button to take them away from the room, where the 19-year-old had allegedly been held and tortured for four days.
One of the men chased after them, but Obirek said she fended him off by swinging her helmet.
All suspects have been arrested, police believe
Over the past week, Windsor police have take six people into custody: three men and three women, all in their 20s.
Christopher Lucier, 24, and Marcus Scott, 21, each face charges of aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, forcible confinement and uttering death threats.
Samantha Watson, Nicole May, and Jessica Millar, all 21, face the same charges, while Cody Carrington, 28, is charged with assault, assault with a weapon and breach of probation.
To me, it was something the devil would do. God put me there for a reason so I'm going to run my big mouth.- Bridgette Obirek
May and Watson also face charges for possession of a controlled substance.
"Charges of this nature with this many people involved is extremely rare," said Sgt. Steve Betteridge. He added that the investigation is still underway, but police believe they have arrested everyone involved.
"I think the police have done a fantastic job of getting to the bottom of this incident," he said. "Now we have to let the judicial process take its course."
'God put me there for a reason'
Obirek said she still can't figure out why that man invited her up to the apartment, knowing she would see what was happening there.
Since she started talking about what she witnessed in the apartment that night, Obirek said she's received threatening phone calls and keeps having nightmares.
Still, she said it's the brutality of the act that makes her brave enough to speak out, and she refuses to let the devil do his work in silence.
"To me, it was something the devil would do," she said. "God put me there for a reason so I'm going to run my big mouth."