A teenage girl reported missing more than two years ago escaped from a home in southwestern Illinois where she said she was held captive and repeatedly sexually assaulted, authorities said Thursday.
Police in Washington Park, a village next to East St. Louis, said the girl reported that she was raped by her captor, got pregnant and had a baby.
In April 2010, St. Louis, Mo., police listed the girl as a missing or runaway juvenile. She was 15 when she disappeared.
She escaped from the home in Washington Park earlier this week and went to police, saying her child was still in the house.
KSDK reporter Talia Kaplan said: "She told police she was not allowed out of the house and was sexually assaulted and beaten almost every day."
About two dozen members of a SWAT team wearing helmets and body armor swarmed the home Thursday afternoon with their assault rifles drawn. They recovered the two-year-old child and arrested a 24-year-old man.
One of the officers carried the child — apparently unharmed — in his arms, and a white sheet was draped over the child's head to conceal the toddler's identity. The child was taken away in a waiting ambulance.
TXT 24
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