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A woman who was held for a year against her will broke free from her alleged kidnapper earlier this month in New Jersey.
The woman, who has not been identified, desperately fled to a gas station and called for help, leading to the arrest of her accused captor, who was detained on multiple charges, police say.
James W. Parrillo, 57, allegedly held the woman captive in Burlington County, New Jersey, strangled her multiple times and threatened to kill her family if she left him.
Parrillo may have engaged in equally abominable ‘predatory conduct’; in other states and he is known to have multiple aliases, according to the state Attorney General’s office.
The suspect is currently in jail while charges are pending.
James W. Parrillo, 57, who used various aliases including “Brett Parker,” was arrested on various charges, including kidnapping. He hampered his own apprehension by refusing to tell police his real name or give them a DNA sample, but eventually admitted to choking the woman in early February.
Attorney General Matt Platkin said: “We are reaching out to law enforcement in all jurisdictions to identify others who may have additional information about the defendant.”
“Our investigation is ongoing and we are committed to doing everything we can to ensure justice is served for this survivor,” he added.
The woman befriended Parrillo, who introduced himself to the woman as “Brett Parker,” at a gas station in New Mexico.
He asked her to take her to Arizona, according to authorities.
The couple had a month-long consensual relationship that ended about a month later in California. But Parrillo choked the woman and made her feel “that she couldn’t leave the relationship.”
The 57-year-old man took the woman’s phone, spent money on her debit cards and did not allow her to communicate with her family members during the time they were together.
In late 2022, the couple turned up in Burlington County, New Jersey, where Parrillo, still using his alias, rented a room on the second floor of a house in Bass River Township.
On February 7, the woman fled the rental home after Parrillo strangled her during an argument.
In a probable cause affidavit filed by police in support of the kidnapping charge against Parrillo, an officer wrote that the woman had run away “once she had the chance.”
When she arrived at the gas station, she told two attendants that ‘Parker’ had held her against her will for about a year. Her suffocation claims lined up with the marks that were evident on her neck.
Gas station manager Jaitin ‘Bobby’ Madaan told a local New Jersey outlet that the woman was “terrified” when she arrived at the business.
“He was shaking, he could barely get his words out, but he kept saying, ‘He’s held me against my will for over a year.’ He kidnapped me,” she said.
‘Parker’ arrived at the gas station shortly after the woman and tried to enter the office, but was denied.
Surveillance video shows the man trying to get around the door that the woman had bolted.
“You don’t want to do this,” he told her, according to Madaan.
When authorities arrived, Parrillo refused to give them his real name, which led to his arrest for hindering his own apprehension.
The man later gave police his real name and admitted to suffocating the woman on February 7.
The Conoco gas station, where the climax of the great escape occurred, is shown here at the intersection of Route 9 and County Route 542 in New Jersey.
Jersey police charged Parrillo with first-degree kidnapping, alleging that he had confined the woman for approximately a year in order to terrorize her and “cause her bodily harm.”
He is accused of threatening the woman, saying that if she left, “he would kill her and her family.”
In addition to kidnapping and holding his own prosecution, the defendant was charged with two counts of aggravated assault, criminal restraint and obstruction, according to court documents.
He also refused to give authorities a DNA sample, for which he was charged.
Pearl Minato, director of the Division of Criminal Justice, said, “The allegations, if proven, demonstrate a level of predatory conduct that poses extreme danger to anyone who crosses the path of this defendant.”