PITTSBURGH — A 24-year-old woman told police that her ex-boyfriend held her against her will and tortured her for several days.
According to police, the woman said Alex McGowan, 25, beat and tortured her on and off for three days.
Becca McPherson, a friend of the victim, said that the 24-year-old escaped from McGowan by jumping out of a window.
According to the woman’s friends, she was sexually, mentally and physically abused inside of McGowan’s Overbrook apartment.
The alleged abuse began on April 23, when the victim said she went to pick up her clothes from the apartment.
She said that she endured beatings and multiple rapes over a 72-hour period, during which her hair was cut off and her head and mouth were duct taped by her ex.
According to the criminal complaint, the woman was choked, punched, kicked, beaten with a cane and burned with a lit cigarette.
She said that she crawled out of the window while McGowan was sleeping, despite being forced to take sleeping pills, and hid behind a nearby church until she felt it was safe to come out.
McGowan is being held in the Allegheny County Jail.
WPXI
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/XCUXZC2XYZHCRGNNGKFEX6U3LQ.png)
