TACOMA, Wash. – A man in the State of Washington was found guilty by a jury last week of kidnapping and sexual assault charges after he held a woman captive in his garage for weeks, according to reports.
Henry Hauser, 56, is a repeat sex offender. As a result of his conviction, he could face life in prison without the possibility of parole for his crimes. The Tacoma resident is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday, according to FOX 13 Seattle.
The victim told police that Hauser offered her a place to stay in his garage on Nov. 10, 2021, in lieu of being without shelter, according to court records.
“She said that after going to the defendant’s garage, they hung out for a period of time,” Pierce County deputy prosecuting attorney Scott Peters wrote in an affidavit at the time. “At some point she became uncomfortable and went to leave. The defendant grabbed her and restrained her by bind[ing] her to a truck with a chain.”
The woman said Hauser drugged her for more than two weeks while keeping her tethered to his truck via a chain that was wrapped around her ankle, FOX reported.
“She said the defendant would make statements to her like he was acting out a fantasy. He would ask her if she wanted to be hurt, he would [say] he was going to kill her slowly, but other times would say he wanted to ‘keep’ her,” the affidavit reads.
While holding the woman captive, Hauser repeatedly sexually assaulted her in his garage until Nov. 28, 2021, when he made the mistake of leaving a key close enough for her to reach. This allowed the woman to escape his residence and seek help.
On Dec. 2, 2021, a Walmart loss prevention officer tracked Hauser down on surveillance video after he used the victim’s food stamps to purchase groceries, which ultimately led to his arrest by the Tacoma Police Department, FOX 13 reported.
At the time he was taken into custody, Hauser was a level 3 sex offender, although he had cut and removed his ankle monitor.
In 2014, Hauser was convicted of kidnapping a 16-year-old girl at knifepoint and taking her back to his residence. At his home he drugged the girl using methamphetamine and sexually assaulted her, according to Pierce County records.
Furthermore, the news outlet reports that he was also convicted of second-degree kidnapping with a deadly weapon and felony harassment in 2007.
