(CNN) A woman who was abducted nearly a year ago while traveling across the country made a dramatic escape from her kidnapper after she hatched a plan to flee a gas station in New Jersey, the authorities said on Friday.
James W. Parrillo Jr., 57, is accused of kidnapping a woman he met in New Mexico last year, traveling to New Jersey with her and attacking her at a Burlington County home where they were renting a rooms, according to a statement from New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin.
The owner of the gas station, Bobby Madaan, told CNN that the woman was rushing to his business on February 7, and he heard screaming and shouting from his office. He ran inside the store and locked the door behind him.
Madaan said he saw a man running behind the woman but when he could not enter the closed gas station he turned and left.
“She was shaking — she was crying,” Madaan said. “He told us he was kidnapped for about a year.”
The woman had marks on her neck and was wearing shorts and a thin shirt with no shoes, Madaan told CNN, adding that the woman told him she started planning her escape after she saw a deadbolt on the gas station door on a previous visit. The woman planned to escape from her kidnapper by running to the gas station and locking herself inside if she had the chance, Madaan said.
Parrillo followed the woman into the gas station and tried to open the door but left when he found it locked, according to authorities.
A customer gave the woman a spare pair of his wife’s shoes, and they found a jacket for her while waiting for police to arrive, Madaan said.
After assuring the woman that she was safe, Madaan said the two called the police. Parrillo was arrested shortly after on February 7, the attorney general said.
Parrillo and the woman had been staying in the rented room for about two weeks before he escaped after being attacked, according to the statement. The woman ran from the house wearing nothing but shorts and a shirt in 42-degree weather, the attorney general said.
They met at a gas station in New Mexico
The woman met the suspect, whom she identified as “Brett Parker,” at a gas station on Interstate 10 in New Mexico in February 2022, according to authorities.
At her request, he agreed to give her a ride to Arizona, authorities said. The woman said she had been in a voluntary relationship with the man she knew as Parker for about a month when he physically assaulted her while the two were in California, where she felt she could not leave the relationship.
During their relationship, Parrillo allegedly took the woman’s phone, confiscated and used her debit cards, and separated her from her family, authorities said. The couple arrived in New Jersey in December.
Platkin called it a “deeply disturbing case.”
“We are reaching out to law enforcement across jurisdictions to identify other people who may have additional information on the accused. Our investigation is ongoing and we are committed to doing everything we can to ensure we provide the justice for this survivor,” said Platkin.
Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police Colonel Patrick J. Callahan said, “the strength and courage of the female victim who successfully escaped her attacker is nothing short of heroic.”
“The allegations of kidnapping and abuse at the hands of the defendant represent a years-long nightmare that the victim has endured that spanned several states across the country and finally ended here in New Jersey,” Callahan said.
Parrillo was charged with first-degree kidnapping, second-degree strangulation and aggravated assault, and third-degree criminal restraint, said Platkin. Parrillo also faces third-degree charges of resisting arrest, fourth-degree obstruction and refusing to provide a DNA sample.
The suspect is being held at the Burlington County Jail pending trial.
CNN reached out to an attorney listed for Parrillo and did not immediately receive a response.
