Inset left to right: Arturo Calzada Becerril and Erendira Amoles (Cass County Jail). Background: A section of 44th Ave. South in Fargo, N.D. (Google Maps).
A maintenance worker in North Dakota hearing cries for help led to the discovery of a woman locked in a room — who said she had not been outside in two years.
Now, two people are behind bars.
Arturo Calzada Becerril, 40, and Erendira Amoles, 41, have both been charged with kidnapping, according to jail records reviewed by Law&Crime. Calzada Becerril faces a charge of domestic violence assault causing bodily injury, while Amoles is charged with simple assault.
On Tuesday, the Fargo Police Department was called to an apartment on 44th Ave. South in Fargo. The maintenance technician working in the building had apparently heard cries for help.
The worker entered the apartment to find a woman chained to a bed with a security camera pointing at her, according to court documents obtained by Valley News Live, a combination of NBC affiliate KVLY and CBS affiliate KXJB. The windows of the bedroom were covered with tinfoil.
Police said that when they arrived, the woman had a chain and padlock around her right ankle. Through a translator, the woman reportedly said she was brought to Fargo from Mexico two years ago by her ex-husband, Calzada Becerril, and had not been outside in two years.
Calzada Becerril allegedly brought the woman food twice a day but forced her to use a bucket as a toilet. Officers freed the woman and brought her to an area hospital.
Not long after, Amoles arrived at the home with her 8-year-old daughter, Valley News Live reported. She reportedly told officers that she often locks the woman up and originally did so because she needed to pick her child up from school.
Investigators caught up with Calzada Becerril, too, and he said the three of them are from the same town in Mexico. He said he locked the woman up so "she did not run away" and alleged that he and Amoles had been assaulted by the woman before.
At the hospital, the victim said Calzada Becerril used to let her out of the bedroom but not anymore. She said she was beaten and sexually assaulted by both suspects, according to the report, and investigators noticed bruising on her body and face.
U.S. Border Patrol was called to the scene, and the investigation was ongoing as of Thursday. Both suspects were arrested and booked into the Cass County Jail.
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