Man Busted After Mom Pleads for Help on Facebook

We 'will be dead by morning,' she posts
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 27, 2011 8:37 AM CST
Man Busted After Mom Pleads for Help on Facebook
This Dec. 24, 2011 photo provided by the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office shows Troy Reed Critchfield.   (AP Photo/Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office)

On Christmas Eve, a sort of Facebook miracle: A Utah woman posted a plea for help, saying that she and her 17-month-old son had been held against their will for five days, which eventually led to their rescue. Police have arrested the woman's live-in boyfriend, Troy Reed Critchfield, 33, on charges of aggravated kidnapping, forcible sodomy, aggravated assault, domestic violence, child abuse, animal cruelty, and more. "I've never met her," one of the woman’s Facebook “friends,” Erica Carver, tells the Deseret News. Rather, Carver’s husband had worked with the unnamed victim. But as soon as Carver saw the post, she—and eventually others—sprang into action.

When one of the woman’s friends produced an address for her, another called local police to give them the information. They arrived to find an uncooperative Critchfield and the woman—who shook her head “No” when asked if she was OK. She told police Critchfield had taken away her phone and assaulted her every time she attempted to escape, but she snuck into a closet with a laptop to post a plea for help on Facebook, the AP reports. Critchfield, who was arrested a year ago for a similar incident involving the same woman, remains in jail. (More Facebook stories.)

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