Ohio woman allegedly abducted, locked in a shed, and brutalized by felon for 4 days speaks out about the ordeal

Akron Police rescued a woman last week who said she had been held against her will for four days and savagely beaten by a felon with a track record of brutalizing women. Chloe Jones, 23, is now speaking out about the nightmare that left her with a fractured skull and bruises all over her body.

"I want to tell the young girls across America, it's not safe to get into a car with people you don’t know or a friend of a friend," Jones told WJW-TV.

Living nightmare

Jones' mother, Jessi Barham, told WEWS-TV her daughter had spoken to 33-year-old William Mozingo online and had planned to hang out with him earlier this month.

Mozingo has been imprisoned three times for kidnapping in the past ten years — twice in Stark County, in 2017 and 2019, and a third time in Adams County back in 2014.

The Akron Beacon Herald reported in April 2019 that just four months after getting out of jail for kidnapping, Mozingo was accused of beating his ex-girlfriend, strangling her, putting a knife to her throat, then restraining her so she couldn't escape over a four-day period. He was convicted in 2020 of kidnapping and aggravated assault.

According to investigators, Mozingo offered Jones a ride home but had no intentions of taking her home. Instead, he took her to a garage belonging to a friend's parents, where he kept her captive, reported WJW.

"It was terrifying," said Jones. "Being in fear of your life countless times, I can't even count how many times he threatened my life."

Mozingo allegedly beat her with a baseball bat and suggested she would never be able to see her son again.

Barham claimed Mozingo "would cuddle her in between beatings."

Extra to allegedly threatening to slit her throat, Barham said Mozingo "doused her in gasoline and was threatening to catch her on fire."

Jones underscored that the thought of her son kept her alive, telling WJW, "I thought about him every day. I just saw his face in my head every day."

The elderly homeowners' son-in-law told police he was making repairs around the house in the early hours of Oct. 16 when he encountered the victim and her abductor, the latter of whom he was familiar with. The man ventured out to his in-laws' unattached garage in search of a moving dolly but instead found Mozingo lurking inside, reported the Akron Beacon Herald.

"I was in there grabbing the dolly when I heard, 'Bro,'" the man told police.

After Mozingo addressed him, the son-in-law recalled hearing a voice from the attic-like space above say, "Can I come down now?"

The son-in-law claimed he ventured up to see the victim after hearing her call out a second time.

"I'm so scared, I don't know what to do," she allegedly told him.

After consoling the victim, the son-in-law claimed he returned to the house and spoke to his wife. They decided to wait five hours before calling police.

"I didn't know how to handle this while keeping her safe and without getting anyone else [hurt]," he told police. "He wasn't in his right state of mind. I wanted to make it look like I wasn't doing anything so he wouldn't get panicky."

The elderly couple's daughter who ultimately called police referred to Mozingo as a good friend, telling the 911 dispatcher, "He used to live here; he paroled here at one time before he went back."

According to the woman, who claimed to have seen Jones on multiple occasions, Mozingo had escaped from a community correctional facility six weeks earlier.

The residents suggested they didn't know how Mozingo and the woman could have been there for four days without anyone cluing in.

The rescue

Akron Police officers arrived around 9:15 a.m. on Oct. 16, finding the garage closed and locked. They grouped at the side door entrance and gave Mozingo an opportunity to surrender.

"William, last chance," shouted one officer. "Come out with your hands up."

With a K-9 unit at the ready, the officers busted open the door. Pre-empting a raid, Mozingo presented himself with hands behind his back.

The Herald indicated Jones carefully made her way down the ladder from the attic space wearing soiled and tattered clothes. Both her eyes were black, framed by yellow and purple bruises. One was swollen shut.

Jones was taken to a nearby hospital.

"I saw this person that I didn't recognize. Her face was twice its normal size," Barham told WEWS.

Mozingo was booked into Summit County Jail and charged with felonious assault, parole violation, escape, unlawful restraint, kidnapping, and abduction.

23-year-old kidnapped woman rescued by Akron policeyoutu.be

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