(LOS ANGELES) — Authorities say they believe a man accused of holding a woman captive at his California home and torturing her for several months may have other victims.
Peter Anthony McGuire, 59, was arrested Saturday after a woman reportedly told deputies he had been holding her against her will at his Chino Hills residence.
The Chino Hills Police Department released a photograph of McGuire on Thursday “as it is believed there may be additional victims of criminal acts committed by McGuire.”
Soon after moving into the house, the victim “was not allowed to leave,” San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Mara Rodriguez told ABC Los Angeles station KABC.
“She was held there against her will by him and at that point was subjected to multiple assaults,” Rodriguez said.
The victim managed to escape the home on the evening of June 9 and fled to nearby Alterra Park, where a bystander called 911 to get aid for her, authorities said.
She claimed that McGuire held her against her will for six months and raped, tortured and disfigured her, authorities said.
“The victim had visible injuries consistent with the allegations made,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement.
Deputies executed a search warrant at the residence and recovered evidence, authorities said. McGuire was arrested on Saturday after allegedly fleeing to a home in Placentia, in neighboring Orange County. He surrendered after temporarily barricading himself inside, the sheriff’s department said.
The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office filed 10 felony charges against McGuire, including kidnapping, false imprisonment by violence, torture, mayhem, assault with a deadly weapon and forcible rape.
On the charge of mayhem, the criminal complaint stated that the suspect “did unlawfully and maliciously deprive Jane/John Doe of a member of the body and did disable, disfigure and render it useless and did cut and disable the tongue, and put out an eye and slit the nose, ear and lip of said person.”
McGuire pleaded not guilty to all charges earlier this week and is being held without bail. He is due back in court next month, KABC reported.
The victim was being treated at a hospital for her injuries, prosecutors said earlier this week.
Neighbors in Chino Hills said the suspect hardly talked to anyone.
“Honestly, it’s very frightening, it is very frightening to know that somebody like that lived three doors away,” Connie Ray told KABC.
Authorities are now urging others who are a victim of the suspect or have information about the case to contact the sheriff’s department or their local law enforcement agency if they are outside of San Bernardino County.
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