PENN HILLS, Pa. — Two men are facing charges for allegedly holding a woman against her will and demanding she perform sex acts on them, according to police.
Andre Artemus was taken into custody last week, while Jabree Thornhill was arrested Monday.
According to Penn Hills police, the men offered to drive the woman to the bus station in Wilkinsburg around 1 a.m. Friday. Instead of taking her to the bus station, they allegedly drove around while demanding she perform sex acts on them, police said. The woman refused, police said.
The men then took the woman to a house in Penn Hills and locked her in the basement, police said. She was found early Friday morning.
“Nothing real traumatic happened to her. All indications are no sexual assault happened,” Penn Hills Police Chief Howard Burton said.
The homeowner told Channel 11’s Catherine Varnum that he did not know the two allegedly were keeping the woman in the basement. He said he saw his cousins, Artemus and Thornhill, get out of the vehicle with them, but told them she was not allowed into his home.
“(The officer) said, ‘Is there anyone in your basement?’ And (the homeowner) said, ‘No, you're free to look.’ (The) officer went down and (the) woman (was) sitting on the phone, talking to dispatch. The homeowner, needless to say, was shocked that there was someone in the basement, ‘cause he thought the basement was empty,” Burton said.
Thornhill has several previous arrests, including endangering the welfare of children, burglary and indecent exposure.