The grandmother believed her enough to call 911.
Police believed the call enough to respond.
Officers believed what they saw enough to force their way inside.
Without the little girl, Johna's opportunity might have closed.
Moises had left the house temporarily.
According to Johna, he planned to return.
And according to one of her later statements, what he told her before leaving made the situation far more urgent than police initially knew.
"When I Come Back, I'm Going to Kill You"
After she was rescued, Johna described what happened in more detail.
She said Moises made her remove her clothing.
Then he placed the chain around her neck.
He called a friend.
He said he needed to return equipment to Lowe's.
Then, according to Johna, he told her what would happen afterward.
"When I come back, I'm going to kill you."
That statement changes the meaning of the broken window.
Johna was not simply trying to escape an abusive partner who wanted to keep her inside.
She believed she was racing against his return.
If his threat was genuine, the amount of time available to her could have been measured in minutes or hours.
She did not have a phone capable of simply calling for rescue from anywhere she wanted.
She could not walk out.
The key was gone.
The chain prevented free movement.
The windows were secured.
So she used what she had.
She moved as far as the chain allowed.
She forced the glass.
She screamed.
That was the entire rescue plan.
Make someone outside hear.
Someone did.
Police Now Needed Moises
The suspect was identified as Moises May.
Thirty-six years old.
Johna gave police a detailed description.
A stocky man.
Long hair around shoulder length.
Distinctive tattoos.
Names associated with his children.
A scorpion tattoo on his arm.
The more specific the description, the easier it would be for officers to identify the correct person later.
Police now knew who they were looking for.
But Moises was not at the house.
That created another danger.
He could return unexpectedly.
He could learn police had rescued Johna.
He could flee.
He could contact her.
He could go somewhere else.
Detectives needed to find him without giving him an easy opportunity to disappear.
Rather than immediately announce every investigative move, officers placed the area under surveillance.
For two days, detectives watched.
Round-the-clock.
Waiting.
A house designed to hide a victim had now become a location police were quietly watching for the person who allegedly built the confinement system.
Then word came over the radio.
The suspect had returned.
The Red Truck
Patrol officers moved toward the property.
A red truck was there.
Two men were inside.
One appeared to match Johna's description.
Long hair.
Build.
General appearance.
But officers still had to confirm identity.
They could not simply assume every Hispanic man near the house was Moises May.
They approached.
Commands came quickly.
Stop.
Hands on top of your head.
The second man was detained too.
From his perspective, the operation seemed confusing.
He questioned police.
Why was he being handcuffed?
What had he done?
Officers explained only what they needed to at that stage.
They were being detained while identities were confirmed.
Handcuffs during a detention do not always mean someone has already been formally arrested.
When officers are dealing with a kidnapping suspect described as potentially violent and known to use a machete, safety comes first.
Then came the crucial question.
Is this actually him?
Police used a phone.
Johna was contacted.
She was asked to describe the suspect.
Hispanic?
Appearance?
Then she was shown or asked about the man police had detained.
Her response was immediate.
"That's him."
"I know him."
The two-day wait had ended.
Police had the man Johna accused.
Moises' First Response
Moises did not accept Johna's account.
He characterized it as drama.
He suggested she was not telling the truth.
He connected the accusations to money and alleged cheating.
This would become a major part of his explanation.
From Moises' perspective, Johna was the problem.
She cheated.
She created drama.
Her version was false.
This is a common dynamic investigators have to sort through in intimate-partner cases.
Each person accuses the other.
The relationship is complicated.
Arguments involve jealousy, money and trust.
Police cannot automatically believe every statement simply because one party says it confidently.
But in this case there was something far more objective than competing relationship accusations.
The house.
Police had personally seen it.
The chain.
They had personally cut it.
The anchor in the floor.
The boarded windows.
The secured doors.
The double-cylinder lock.
Johna's broken escape window.
Physical evidence existed independently of either person's opinion about the relationship.
That evidence would become central.
Search Warrant
After Moises was detained and later arrested, investigators obtained a search warrant.
Now they could conduct a much more complete examination of the house.
The earlier emergency entry had one primary purpose.
Save the victim.
Make sure no immediate human victim remained in obvious accessible areas.
A warrant allowed investigators to slow down.
Document.
Photograph.
Open areas they could not fully access earlier.
Preserve evidence.
They confirmed there were no additional human victims in the property.
That was important.
The strange locked and boarded rooms had naturally created fear that police might discover more people.
They did not.
But the absence of more victims did not make the house less disturbing.
The more investigators examined it, the clearer the confinement design became.
This was not one chain spontaneously attached during an argument.
The entire property had features that restricted movement.
Doors were screwed shut.
Others were boarded.
Windows had been bolted.
The front door used the double-cylinder deadbolt.
You needed a key to open it even from inside.
And Moises allegedly controlled the only key.
That meant a person inside could stand directly at the front door and still be unable to leave.
In a normal emergency, people run toward the exit.
Here, the exit itself was controlled by the person accused of holding the victim.
Heavy-Duty Hardware
Investigators examined where Johna had been chained.
The chain had been attached using substantial hardware.
Not improvised with a loose knot.