Hotel workers in St. Louis are credited with alerting police of two Florida women who said they were kidnapped, according to a new report.
Around 11:30 a.m. on Oct. 28, police received a “rather bizarre call” from employees at the Hampton Inn in St. Louis, Missouri. The moment that their alleged captors briefly left them alone, two Florida women reportedly informed hotel staff that they had been kidnapped.
The kidnapped women – ages 21 and 36 – informed police that they had been hired for a “moving job” in Florida. However, the abductees claim that over the span of 10 days that their kidnappers transported them from Florida to Atlanta, Georgia, and then to St. Louis.
“It wasn’t until they wound up in the area of Atlanta, Georgia, that they were told they weren’t going to be allowed to leave. They were then driven from the area of Atlanta to St. Louis, where they were checked into this hotel. They were kept with three suspects,” said Sgt. Charles Wall – spokesperson for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.
KTVI reported that the women were “frightened about what might be next” after arriving in St. Louis.
St. Louis police responded to the kidnapping call from the hotel workers and arrested one of the three suspects.
Nikki Rebarcak, 41, was arrested when she returned to the Hampton Inn. Rebarcak was reportedly charged with two counts of felony kidnapping.
The two other suspects fled the purported crime scene.
However, Judge Elizabeth Hogan reportedly released Rebarcak from jail on her own recognizance despite being charged with two felonies.
Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri was allegedly upset that the human trafficking suspect was released.
“It is often very hard to prosecute these traffickers because they hide behind, ‘Well, I had a legitimate business,'” Hawley told KTVI. “You can’t quite prove kidnapping, so you’ve got to get me on something else. They intimidate their victims.”
Police said an investigation is ongoing. One of the suspects who escaped has been identified and law enforcement has been attempting to locate the alleged human trafficker.
Sgt. Wall said investigators will contact other law enforcement agencies to determine if the kidnapping is part of a larger human trafficking ring.
“If (the suspects) have similar types of involvement with other agencies out of state, across the country, other similar incidents, those are all key indicators to get you to look at maybe some type of ring involved in this type of activity,” Sgt. Wall explained.
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