HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) - Arkansas authorities say a woman who was allegedly held against her will and tortured before escaping went with her alleged assailant willingly and was not forcibly abducted, as she initially reported.
Garland County sheriff's department spokesman Lt. James Martin said Wednesday that the woman initially told investigators a man abducted her Thursday from a friend's home and held her against her will until she escaped Saturday.
But Martin says she later told investigators she went there willingly and that the man wouldn't let her leave on Saturday. Martin says investigators believe Jason Ripley beat the woman and burned her with a torch and cigarettes.
Ripley was arrested at an eastern Tennessee motel early Wednesday on preliminary charges of kidnapping and first-degree battery. A relative says he doesn't have a lawyer.
