Man charged with kidnapping, sexually assaulting woman chained up in vacant West Pullman building

CHICAGO - A Blue Island man was charged in the kidnapping and sexual assault of a woman who was found handcuffed and chained up last month inside a vacant West Pullman home.

Joel Cammon, 44, was arrested Tuesday in Alsip and charged with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated criminal sexual assault, police said.

Cammon is accused of chaining the 36-year-old woman in the upstairs bedroom of a vacant home for three days starting on May 18 in the 11900 block of South Eggleston Avenue, according to police.

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The pair knew each other from earlier encounters when Cammon paid her for sex, prosecutors said. Cammon worked as a "quasi-security guard" for a nearby store, and had arranged to meet the woman at the abandoned house, prosecutors said.

They went to the basement and began arguing, prosecutors said. Cammon said he was "sick of paying" her for sex, then handcuffed her and dragged her to the attic, prosecutors said. He abandoned her there for three days, coming back periodically to sexually assault her, prosecutors said.

Surveillance video in the area corroborates some of the woman’s account, showing her and then Cammon walking through an alley toward the building, prosecutors said.

The woman was discovered after a good Samaritan heard her crying for help while walking down the street.

"As I get closer: 'Help!' Bam, bam bam! I said, 'Who is that?' 'Help!' That's when I called police," Antoine Dobine explained.

Neighbors said the home where the woman was found had been vacant for more than 30 years.

In 2005, Cammon was convicted of animal neglect for allegedly tying a dog to a pole outside a building without water or shelter.

Cammon has a history of depression and mental health issues, his attorney said.

Judge Barbara Dawkins ordered him held without bail.

Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.