Woman Alleges Days Of Captivity, Abuse By Man

Brook Barrett, 30, one of two alleged victims of Floyd Lee Cahoon, decided to speak out after Cahoon's arrest last week.

Cahoon, 44, of of 2935 George Owen Road in Fayetteville, was arrested a week ago on kidnapping, rape and assault charges. A 33-year-old woman told authorities that she was kept in padlocked chains and a dog collar and was beaten and forced to perform sex acts for five days.

On Wednesday, authorities filed 14 more charges against Cahoon, including kidnapping, sex offense and assault, after Barrett told investigators that she had a similar experience in June. He's being held in the Cumberland County Detention Center on a $900,000 bond.

"I'd rather be beaten and raped for five days than to go through the mental abuse I had to go through," Barrett said.

WRAL usually doesn't identify the victims of sexual assaults, but Barrett agreed to be named and tell her story.

Authorities have said they fear more women could have been similarly victimized, and Barrett shares that fear.

"He told me several times that he could have had me shipped across the U.S.," she said. "There's no telling what he's done. He could have shipped several women across the U.S. Who knows?"

Barrett said her ordeal started one night when she was looking for a cocaine high. She usually works as a prostitute to buy crack, and she said a man agreed to buy her a rock after he went home to feed his dog.

The two ended up at a Hope Mills residence that also houses the offices of Spur-Tech Computers. Barrett said the man must have slipped something in her drink to make her fall asleep.

"I don't normally fall asleep like that after I've been doing crack," she said, adding that she awoke to a nightmare.

"He put a knife to my throat and grabbed me by the hair in my head," she said. "I could hear him saying 'Lay down,' just mean and harsh. I put up a fight as hard as I could, but I couldn't fight any more after he choked me."

Her wrists and ankles were duct-taped, and she was bound in stripped telephone cord. Her captor fed her Cheez-Its out of his hand and sometimes poured hot candle wax on her wrists.

"He put a dog collar around my neck and turned the chair upside-down, so I would be looking up," she said. "I was lying on my hands, basically."

The situation lasted for three days, Barrett said, until she escaped when the man took her to Wal-Mart to buy her a shirt.

Barrett said she reported the incident to authorities in July, and she wonders why it took so long for an arrest. Investigators with the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office haven't commented on the matter.

After the experience, Barrett said she wants to change her lifestyle.

"It's not fun, but it doesn't mean I'm not human," she said. "I still have a heart. I still shed tears."