Man accused of holding, torturing ex-girlfriend

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Police say a woman was held prisoner and repeatedly tortured in a house in Brooklyn.

A suspect is under arrest in this shocking case.

The 26-year-old victim is in critical condition.

Police say what she endured is horrifying as she was repeatedly burned and beaten inside a home in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

"She told me that she met this guy on Craigslist. (Not Anthony?) Not my son," said Cheryl Eberhart, suspect's mother.

The mother of alleged torture suspect Anthony Matthews claims her 31-year-old son didn't dump his nearly dead ex-girlfriend on her doorstep.

Cheryl Eberhart says the 26-year-old woman banged on the door of the 9th floor apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Monday morning, pleading for help.

"Then I asked her, I said, 'What's wrong?' and she said, 'um, I F'ed up. I went on the Craigslist, I met this guy, I started prostituting,' she says, 'I just went crazy, and I took an iron and I burned myself with it,'" Eberhart said.

Prosecutors tell a very different story, claiming Matthews turned his second floor apartment in the Bedford-Stuyvesant home into a torture chamber for his victim during a month-long marathon horror show.

After allegedly kidnapping her from the family home in Peekskill, he allegedly used a heated screwdriver and hot iron to burn her legs, shoved a gun in her mouth, and beat his victim with a large piece of wood.

"This has been going on for a while, in some sort of involuntary custody for about two years, an off and on relationship," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

Cops descended on Matthews' home on Wednesday, and he ran, and was arrested after a massive chase into a nearby lot.

"It's the most horrendous thing that I've ever heard of to know of. To know that this happened in my, next door to me, that my child was here while that young lady was in there, that this happened next door to me. I never heard one sound, not a peep. Never saw," said Ruby Moses, a neighbor.

The suspect's family is standing by him, saying the alleged victim is a woman scorned, bent on revenge.

"(You're saying she set him up?) Yes, she did, yes. (Even though she was allegedly tortured?) Tortured how? She did everything to herself. (But they also said that she was tied up, restrained, and that he hit her with wood, that he tied her up with extension cords?) Not my brother, he didn't do that, the girl is a liar. (She's a liar?) Yes she is," said Lanette Eberhart, suspect's sister.

---
WAKE UP WITH EYEWITNESS NEWS! Click here to download the WABC Eyewitness News Alarm Clock app from iTunes. or search WABC or 7online in the app store.

Get Eyewitness News Delivered

Facebook | Twitter | Newsletters | Text Alerts

Get more New York News »

new york city, bedford-stuyvesant, assault, new york news, sarah wallace

• Comment Now
• Email
• Print
• Report a typo
•