The first thing neighbors heard was a woman screaming from a second-story window.
Not calling someone's name.
Not arguing with another person.
Screaming for help.
Then someone looked up.
Through a broken window of a Louisville, Kentucky home, a woman could be seen desperately trying to attract attention.
There was something around her neck.
A chain.
It did not disappear into the room loosely.
It was holding her inside.
A child nearby noticed her.
The little girl told her grandmother that a woman was yelling from the house.
And that she had a chain around her neck.
The grandmother called 911.
At first, even the situation described over the radio sounded difficult to believe.
A woman chained inside a house?
Police responding to bizarre emergency calls have to remain skeptical without dismissing them.
Sometimes callers misunderstand what they see.
Sometimes a domestic argument sounds worse from outside.
Sometimes information changes completely once officers arrive.
But when Louisville Metro Police reached the property, they looked toward the second floor.
And there she was.
A woman at the window.
A chain around her neck.
The call was real.
Officers now had a problem.
They could see the victim.
They could hear her.
They knew she was alive.
But they could not simply open the front door and walk inside.
Because almost every obvious way into the house had been deliberately blocked.
The doors were boarded.
Wood had been nailed or screwed into place.
Windows had been secured.
The front entrance had been modified so that getting out was nearly as difficult as getting in.
Police tried to force their way through.
The door would not give.
They checked another entrance.
Blocked.
Another.
Secured.
One officer looked at the building and said what everyone was beginning to understand.
"He's boarded up everything."
This was not a woman who had accidentally locked herself in a room.
Someone had turned the house into a place designed to keep people from leaving.
And somewhere in that house, officers did not yet know what else they might find.
They could see one victim.
They did not know whether there were more.
They did not know whether the person responsible was still inside.
They did not know whether he had a gun.
A knife.
A machete.
Or whether he was waiting behind one of those barricaded doors for police to break through.
All they knew was that a woman had managed to reach a window.
And if she had not done that, nobody outside might have known she was there.
The Woman in the Window
As officers moved around the property, they tried to locate exactly where the woman was.
Which window?
Second floor.
Which side?
Toward the back.
They could hear her.
Then they confirmed visually what the 911 caller had reported.
A female victim.
Chained.
Police radioed the information.
They were attempting to enter.
Something was barricading the doors.
Firefighters were requested because officers might need specialized tools to force their way through.
Then someone noticed a ladder.
If the doors could not be opened quickly enough, police could potentially climb to the second story.
That was now a serious option.
The victim was only several feet away from freedom.
But those several feet were separated by reinforced barriers and a chain attached somewhere inside the house.
Officers climbed.
They reached the upper level through the broken window.
And now the situation became even stranger.
The woman was not simply wearing a chain around her neck.
The chain continued downward.
It was connected to the floor.
She could move only as far as the length allowed.
She was trapped inside her own radius of metal.
Police asked her the most urgent questions first.
Is anyone else here?
Was the man still inside?
Were there other victims?
She told them she believed she was alone.
But officers could not rely only on that.
She had been trapped.
She had not had free movement through the property.
She could not know with certainty what might be behind every closed and boarded door.
Police began clearing the accessible rooms.
They encountered another problem.
Some areas could not easily be searched at all.
A basement door had been nailed or secured shut.
Another room was locked.
A rear room was inaccessible.
The woman explained that one particular room was a place the man never allowed her to enter.
That immediately raised concern.
If someone has already chained one victim to a floor, police cannot assume a locked room contains nothing important.
Every inaccessible door becomes a question.
But before solving every mystery inside the house, they needed to get the woman free.
Cutting the Chain
The officers could not simply unlock it.
There was no key available to them.
The woman did not possess one.
The chain had not been casually looped around furniture.
Later examination would show it had been fixed to the floor with heavy-duty hardware.
Someone had taken time to install it.
This was important.
It suggested preparation.
The house itself reinforced that impression.
Doors screwed shut.
Windows boarded.
A front door using a double-cylinder deadbolt that required a key from both sides.
And according to the later investigation, only one person possessed that key.
The man accused of imprisoning her.
For the officers inside, however, all of that would be documented later.
Right now they needed tools.
Firefighters were outside.
Bolt cutters.
Axes.
Anything strong enough to cut metal.
One officer tried to protect the woman's neck while others worked.
If the chain moved suddenly, it could injure her.
The rescuers cut through a link.
Metal gave way.
For the first time in hours, Johna was no longer physically attached to the floor.
Yet she still was not outside.
The house remained barricaded.
The front entrance still had to be forced.
Firefighters began breaking the obstruction.
Officers reassured her.
"You're fine. We're here now."
"We're going to get you out of here."
Johna apologized.
One officer immediately stopped her.
"Don't say sorry for nothing."
That small exchange says a great deal about victims of coercive control.
Even while being rescued after apparently being chained to a floor, she was apologizing.
Police did not need an apology.
They needed her safe.
Firefighters finally forced the door.
Officers led her outside.
For Johna, the physical confinement had ended.
The investigation was only beginning.
How Long Had She Been Chained?
Once outside, officers wanted medical help.
Johna initially said she did not need an ambulance.
She wanted out.
That was the priority in her mind.
Get away from the house.