ST. LOUIS — A woman was found bound by ropes and bleeding this weekend, then told officers she had been held hostage inside a church in the city’s Patch neighborhood.
An officer responded to a call for help just before 1:30 a.m. Saturday.
The woman, who was bleeding from the head, told the officer she had been held hostage at a church in the 300 block of Marceau Street, in far south St. Louis.
She said she was locked in a room, only given water and beaten. There was no indication how long the woman had been held in the room.
Police went with the woman to the church, and she took officers to a room that had a bottle of water and a bucket filled with feces and urine, an officer wrote in a court document.
She identified three suspects at that location: 32-year-old Pasi Heri of Dutchtown, 28-year-old Grace Kipendo of Arnold and 25-year-old Mmunga Fungamali, who has a Canadian address listed on his court file. Police were unable to confirm his citizenship status in Canada.
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All three men were each charged with one count of second-degree kidnapping and one count of third-degree assault. They were all arrested Saturday, according to online court records, and remained in custody Monday without bond.
The woman was not a native English speaker, police said, but the officer wrote she knew English well enough to talk to him.