Two girls who were held captive in a basement as suspected sex slaves for almost a year were rescued last week after a repairman found a note they smuggled out in a broken television.
The girls, aged 19 and 16, were found last Friday, naked and shackled at the ankles in a secret underground room Zeng Xiangbao built in his two-storey home in Wuhan, Hubei, The Beijing News reported yesterday. It did not say whether the girls had been raped.
Zeng, 39, had been detained for a week before their rescue as a suspect in an unrelated rape case. He lost a canteen card at the crime scene, which led to his detention, the report said.
Zeng, who divorced last year, lived with his 70-year-old mother in the house where he kept the girls captive. He worked at a nearby kiln and was described as a quiet man.
A policeman at the Gangcheng Public Security Bureau's criminal investigation division confirmed the case but declined to give more details, citing the ongoing investigation.
The 19-year-old, whose home was just 200 metres from where she was held captive, went missing in July. Her family reported her missing to police but had received no leads as to her whereabouts until her father got a phone call from a stranger last Friday asking if he had a missing daughter.
The caller said his repairman friend had opened a TV cover and found a folded note saying: 'Help! I have been held in an underground place for more than a year.' The note also had a simple sketch marking the location where the victim was being was held, her father's phone number, her home address and the name of the man who was holding her.