Suspects in chained teen case could be in Ontario
Boy said men talked about trying to sell him
CBC News
Posted: Sep 27, 2012 8:46 PM AT
Last Updated: Sep 28, 2012 9:56 AM AT
Police say the two suspects accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy and chaining him up in a home in Nova Scotia are believed to be travelling to Ontario.
David James Leblanc, 47, and Wayne Alan Cunningham, 31, are facing charges of forcible confinement and sexual assault.
Nova Scotia police located a Chevy Venture van linked to the men and said they believe the pair are now travelling in a 2003 grey Hyundai Elantra, with Nova Scotia licence plate FBP 233.
An arrest warrant for the pair says, "Over the course of several days these two men forcibly confined and sexually assaulted [the teen]" and that "the two men were talking about trying to sell him."
The document says the teen told police he'd been sleeping on the street in Halifax and woke up in a van with a man.
Police said the teen had been held against his will for as long as two weeks.
Boy in chains
As RCMP in Nova Scotia continue their search for two men, the man who says he helped the victim is telling his story.
Terry Frauzel was in his Upper Chelsea home Monday when he heard a knock on the back door just after 7 p.m. Frauzel said a young man was outside.
"He was obviously in distress," he said. "I thought he had been in an accident because he didn't know where he was. I thought he had amnesia."
Frauzel said the boy was dressed in just a hooded sweatshirt and a hat.
He said he had been held by two men for two weeks."
Frauzel let him in the house and asked how he could help.
'When I saw the chains, quite frankly, I got very, very angry.'—Terry Frauzel
"He said, 'Do you have bolt cutters?' Then he showed me. He had been hiding them. He had chains on his wrists and his ankles."
Frauzel said he was stunned when he realized what was going on, and became angry that anyone would do that to a teenager. He said the chains were loose enough that the boy was able to walk more than one kilometre to Frauzel's home.
"But one of the chains was really, really tight around the wrist. He said that was because he had escaped before and this time they really wanted to make sure he couldn't get the chains off."
Frauzel's wife went to get the boy clothes while he cut the chains off. Frauzel clearly remembers the boy's reaction when the chains came off.
David James Leblanc (Courtesy RCMP)"Once I cut him free, he was so grateful. He said, 'I'm finally free of those things.'"
The boy then asked Frauzel to drive him to a house in Bridgewater, and the man learned a few more details about what had happened. The boy told Frauzel he ducked in and out of the woods during his escape, fearful that his captors would find him.
Frazuel said they had to call the authorities but the boy asked him not to. According to Frauzel, the 16-year-old said the captors would hurt his friends and family if he told his story.
At no point did Frauzel ask for details about what happened during the teen's captivity.
"I just wanted to help him. I couldn't help him enough. I was glad to be able to."
People at the house in Bridgewater later took the teen to the hospital.
'Turn yourself in,' says Lebanc's family
On Thursday, Violet Leblanc told CBC News she last saw her son on Monday, just hours before the teen escaped the house. Leblanc said her son wanted to borrow money to buy gas, and one of her other sons gave him $20.
Wayne Alan Cunningham (Courtesy RCMP)Leblanc said her son had been working in Halifax as a painter. She said the whole family is hoping he will turn himself in to the authorities.
Daniel LeBlanc said he saw his uncle when he came looking for money.
Now he said it's time for his uncle and Cunningham to turn themselves in.
"There's no way they're going to get away with the information age, the way it is. Their faces are all over the internet, all over the television, all over the newspapers. Someone is going to find them eventually and evading the police is only going to make it worse," he said.
Forensic identification units have spent two days searching the house where the teen was allegedly confined.
The house at 174 Faulkner Rd. is owned by Mark Kenny, a custodian at North Queens Regional School with the South Shore Regional School Board. The board confirmed to CBC News that Kenny is not at work but is being paid "while the situation is being reviewed."
Accused have history
Both accused have criminal records.
They were convicted in Bridgewater in November 2006 of theft, breaking and entering, fraud, forgery and possession of stolen property.
David James Leblanc currently faces charges of making and distributing child pornography, sexual assault and sexual interference involving two boys aged two and five.
The allegations span several months and communities: July 5, 2010, in Dartmouth; June 1-Aug. 31, 2010, in Liverpool; Sept. 1-Dec. 1, 2010, in Lequille, Annapolis County.
The conditions of his release include that he must stay away from the internet, children and the communities of Liverpool and Lequille.
He's scheduled to be in court for those charges Nov. 26.
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