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Woman who was raped, chained up for days breaks silence

Posted at 11:33 PM, Aug 02, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-02 23:33:29-04

INDIANAPOLIS -- The woman who survived a brutal attack on the north side is desperately hoping police find her attacker before he strikes again.

As of Tuesday night, police were still searching for 28-year-old Maurice Nelson – the man accused of chaining up the woman in his basement and raping her repeatedly over a period of four days.

MORE | Man accused of raping woman, chaining her up in basement

The woman, who RTV6 is not naming, says she just kept thinking about her two young kids. She says that allowed her to mentally deal with four days of physical and emotional pain.

"He started talking to me like I'm not going to ever get out of here," she said. "Then that's when I'm like, 'I'm going to have to kill him. I'm going to have to kill him or he's going to kill me.'"

The woman says Nelson beat her and shackled her hands and feet to the floor.

Court records detail how Nelson and the woman met through a phone chatting service. He then took her to a north side home on Norwaldo Avenue and assaulted her for days.

"He said, 'One day you're going to be famous because of me if you get away,'" she said. "And I'm like, I'm not worried about that I just want to go to my family."

The woman says she screamed for help when her attacker left the house. Those screams were eventually heard by neighbor Brandon Owens, who sought help.

"I still was saying help when the police came down there," she said. "I didn't realize. I thought I was asleep."

Owens is a client of an organization that helps adults with mental disabilities. They honored his efforts Tuesday.

"My advice is to follow your instinct and to make the call and don't be afraid to call," Owens said.

The woman says she wants to meet Owens someday.

"Me screaming wouldn't have been nothing if he hadn't called," she said.

Nelson is facing a litany of charges, including rape, criminal confinement, battery by bodily waste and battery by means of a deadly weapon.

If you have any information about his whereabouts, contact Crime Stoppers at 262-TIPS.