Alert St. Louis hotel staff helps save kidnapped Florida women from captors: report
Two women who were allegedly kidnapped from Florida were rescued from a St. Louis hotel over the weekend after staff received a bizarre call, police said.
St. Louis police credited a hotel staff's "bizarre call" with helping rescue two women who were being held captive in their rooms.
The women – ages 21 and 36 – pleaded with employees to help them when their alleged captors briefly left them alone last Saturday, local Fox 2 news reported.
They had been on a terrifying 10-day trip that started with a "moving job" in Florida. Then, three suspects allegedly took them to the Atlanta area and then finally to St. Louis, where the women were "frightened about what might be next," according to the local news outlet.
"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," Sgt. Charles Wall, a spokesman for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, told Fox 2.
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St. Louis police did not say how long the women were in the city's downtown Hampton Inn hotel.
Fox News Digital left messages for police for more information and arresting documents.
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One of the three suspects – Nikki Rebarcak, 41 – was arrested after hotel staff told police she was back in the building.
She was charged with two counts of kidnapping and released on her own recognizance, but at least two other male suspects escaped, police told Fox 2.
The case raises fears of a human trafficking ring.
St. Louis officers are working with federal law enforcement and prosecutors to see if this is an isolated incident or part of a larger criminal network.
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"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 told Fox 2 in an interview.
Police have identified one of Rebarcak’s alleged co-defendants and are actively searching for him, according to the local news outlet.
Hotel ownership did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.