The most terrifying night of my life
It has taken me 2 months to be able to write this as I am still overwhelmed by what happened and the series of events since.
Note sure how to start - Well first I should say if you are triggered easily by violence and fears of murder and torture - I would highly recommend you stop reading now.
So let's start with the news article and then I will tell the story through my eyes (by the way the woman in the article is my daughter.)
Monday, Jun 16 2014 06:02 PM
The woman told police Michael Durand Lenoir was "furious" when he discovered an acquaintance of his had taken a black revolver from the woman's motel room in the 900 block of Union Avenue, the reports say. Lenoir, 41, tracked her down in the area of Union Avenue and Brundage Lane the evening of May 28.
He got out of his vehicle and punched her, knocking her to the ground, the reports say the woman told police. He then threw her in his vehicle and drove to the motel room where she'd been selling methamphetamine for Lenoir after meeting him a few weeks earlier.
She told detectives Lenoir, described as 6 feet tall and 270 pounds, is a pimp who requires his prostitutes to sell meth for him.
The woman said Lenoir used scissors to stab her and cut her left ear, according to the reports. She said at least two prostitutes held her down while he beat her by swinging an empty beer bottle inside a plastic bag.
At Lenoir's direction, one of the prostitutes held a lit butane lighter to her left nostril, the reports say the woman told police.
Lenoir then shoved the battered, bleeding woman into the motel bathroom and raped her, according to the reports. He raped her again within an hour.
The woman was admitted to the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento the following day and Bakersfield police were notified. The reports don't indicate how she got to the center, or why she didn't go to a Bakersfield hospital.
Lenoir is charged with aggravated mayhem, torture, kidnapping and other offenses and is being held without bail. His next court hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
Court records show numerous criminal convictions against Lenoir, including assault on a person causing great bodily injury in 2012, drug possession for sales in 2007 and robbery in 1992.
He was on parole when arrested May 30.
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Background: My daughter is 18, diagnosed with bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, and reactive attachment disorder. I adopted her just as she was turning 5 from the foster care system.
She has struggled with drug use and violence for years and in 2012 I was forced to relinquish custody of her to Sacramento CPS.
My daughter was in a program called AB12 which is extended foster care for those who want it after they turn 18. For more information on AB12 click here.
on May 23, 2014 - I got an email from the group home in Bakersfield that my daughter was living in under the AB12 program "Hi i wanted to let you know that [your daughter] came to the house earlier under the influence with an older man. She got some of her belongings and said she wasn't coming back. She left in his car."
My daughter disappeared off facebook, no one seemed to know where she was. I enlisted help from a couple of her friends in the area to find her. They found out she seemed to be with some not so good characters but seemed to make the choice on her own.
On the night of May 28th, I was just starting to let myself be ok with the fact my daughter is just not making good choices and I would just have to let her know when she was ready to change I would be here for her.
May 29, 2014 - 1:31am - just as I was getting into bed, the phone rings. It is a "RESTRICTED NUMBER" - I honestly thought it was the police telling me they had found my daughter since they had a missing person's report on her. A man with a deep older voice asked if I was the mom of xxx and I said yes. He then went on to tell me he "ran the streets" and my daughter had stolen from him and he went on and on. Talking nicely but letting me know he was dangerous. I was trying to understand what he wanted and then he told me he would kill my daughter if he didn't get x amount of money. Money for a gun and money for stolen drugs. I told him I didn't have the money at that hour but he should take her to the police and press charges. I wasn't sure if this was my daughter trying to get me to give her money but I also didn't have the amount of money he was asking for. I also realized in the conversation that my daughter had told this man that I lived in the house that was her group home house so he thought I could just show up some place with the money. It took him awhile to understand that I lived 5 hours away. I told him to either take her to the poiice station or to drop her off in front of it so that she hopefully would be safe since I was no where near her and it would take too long for me to get there.
The man hung up. I consulted with my husband and we called Bakersfield PD - they told me since the call came to me and I did not have a number or a location that I would need to call my local police department. I called them and they said there was nothing I could do but I could put a report in online or call after 9am and they could take the report on the phone. I then got another call from the man. He called back and I could hear my daughter screaming in the background. He was threatening that should would not live any longer if I didn't pay up. Again I told him to take her to the police station or to let her go and I didn't have the amount of money he wanted.
I called our local police again and they said that there was nothing I could do. So I cried and laid down with the phone in my hand waiting for another call and hoping and praying my daughter would make it through this. An hour and a half later (3:33am) - I get another call from this man. He says he is outside the group home and wants me to call them to let her in - I try to explain that they won't let her in because her bed is closed and she is not allowed back to live. He doesn't understand - I keep trying to explain it is a group home that only allows people in that were assigned there by the state or county and she has no assignment there. He is upset. Desperately I beg him to take him to a bus stop (since at this point it is obvious he wants to get rid of her and I am just praying he won't kill her). I tell him I will pay if he puts her on the bus. He hangs up.
I make tons of phone calls to Greyhound and they refuse to sell me a ticket for the next bus because it is too soon and they will not allow someone to buy a ticket over the phone unless it is more than 2 hours. I buy the next ticket which is like at 7am - knowing that probably won't work but I have no idea what else to do - I am nearly 5 hours away. I have no idea how badly hurt my daughter is and cannot do anything to help her.
4:03am - he calls back - he is there and will try to get her on the bus that leaves in just a few minutes. He hangs up. I am nearly throwing up I am so scared and nervous.
4:09am - he calls back - I can hear other voices - he is trying to force Greyhound to accept her despite the fact she looks really bad - he explains (like he keeps claiming throughout our whole phone conversation between threats) that he found her after she had been jumped and he is trying to get her back to me - they talk to me on the phone I beg - please let her on the bus (I just want her away from him) - Goddess please do not have him get on the bus with her. It sounds like they accept her and then he insists I send him money - I do - moneygram - to strangely enough his real name - I so will get him as soon as my daughter is safe.
Now just to wait and hope and pray that she really is on the bus, stays on the bus and is ok enough to get to me.
Then I picked her up - her bus was late - the man kept calling me trying to get more money - it was horrible. I saw my daughter - she looked so beat up. She wouldn't really speak to me. I took her to her social workers office and finally tried urgent care - my daughter admitted she had been raped and so an ambulance was called and she was taken to UCDavis. She was released late that night and taken to a safe place to get a rape kit. I love my daughter and it breaks my heart that she went through this. Sadly she would continue making such choices that could put her in a similar situation... I just hope before anything horrible happens to her again, she turns her life around. She is an amazing and creative intelligent young lady who has a wicked sense of humor. I would hate for the world to lose such a vibrant young lady.
_________________________________________________________________________
Update 09/03/2014 - Michael Lenoir and one of the prostitutes that tortured my daughter are to have pre-trial in the next week. Both are held without bail.
Note sure how to start - Well first I should say if you are triggered easily by violence and fears of murder and torture - I would highly recommend you stop reading now.
So let's start with the news article and then I will tell the story through my eyes (by the way the woman in the article is my daughter.)
Monday, Jun 16 2014 06:02 PMReports: Beating, rape was payback for gun theft
The brutal beating and rape of a woman late last month was allegedly payback for the woman's failure to prevent the theft of a pimp's gun from her motel room, according to court filings.The woman told police Michael Durand Lenoir was "furious" when he discovered an acquaintance of his had taken a black revolver from the woman's motel room in the 900 block of Union Avenue, the reports say. Lenoir, 41, tracked her down in the area of Union Avenue and Brundage Lane the evening of May 28.
He got out of his vehicle and punched her, knocking her to the ground, the reports say the woman told police. He then threw her in his vehicle and drove to the motel room where she'd been selling methamphetamine for Lenoir after meeting him a few weeks earlier.
She told detectives Lenoir, described as 6 feet tall and 270 pounds, is a pimp who requires his prostitutes to sell meth for him.
The woman said Lenoir used scissors to stab her and cut her left ear, according to the reports. She said at least two prostitutes held her down while he beat her by swinging an empty beer bottle inside a plastic bag.
At Lenoir's direction, one of the prostitutes held a lit butane lighter to her left nostril, the reports say the woman told police.
Lenoir then shoved the battered, bleeding woman into the motel bathroom and raped her, according to the reports. He raped her again within an hour.
The woman was admitted to the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento the following day and Bakersfield police were notified. The reports don't indicate how she got to the center, or why she didn't go to a Bakersfield hospital.
Lenoir is charged with aggravated mayhem, torture, kidnapping and other offenses and is being held without bail. His next court hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
Court records show numerous criminal convictions against Lenoir, including assault on a person causing great bodily injury in 2012, drug possession for sales in 2007 and robbery in 1992.
He was on parole when arrested May 30.
_____________________________________
Background: My daughter is 18, diagnosed with bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, and reactive attachment disorder. I adopted her just as she was turning 5 from the foster care system.
She has struggled with drug use and violence for years and in 2012 I was forced to relinquish custody of her to Sacramento CPS.
My daughter was in a program called AB12 which is extended foster care for those who want it after they turn 18. For more information on AB12 click here.
on May 23, 2014 - I got an email from the group home in Bakersfield that my daughter was living in under the AB12 program "Hi i wanted to let you know that [your daughter] came to the house earlier under the influence with an older man. She got some of her belongings and said she wasn't coming back. She left in his car."
My daughter disappeared off facebook, no one seemed to know where she was. I enlisted help from a couple of her friends in the area to find her. They found out she seemed to be with some not so good characters but seemed to make the choice on her own.
On the night of May 28th, I was just starting to let myself be ok with the fact my daughter is just not making good choices and I would just have to let her know when she was ready to change I would be here for her.
May 29, 2014 - 1:31am - just as I was getting into bed, the phone rings. It is a "RESTRICTED NUMBER" - I honestly thought it was the police telling me they had found my daughter since they had a missing person's report on her. A man with a deep older voice asked if I was the mom of xxx and I said yes. He then went on to tell me he "ran the streets" and my daughter had stolen from him and he went on and on. Talking nicely but letting me know he was dangerous. I was trying to understand what he wanted and then he told me he would kill my daughter if he didn't get x amount of money. Money for a gun and money for stolen drugs. I told him I didn't have the money at that hour but he should take her to the police and press charges. I wasn't sure if this was my daughter trying to get me to give her money but I also didn't have the amount of money he was asking for. I also realized in the conversation that my daughter had told this man that I lived in the house that was her group home house so he thought I could just show up some place with the money. It took him awhile to understand that I lived 5 hours away. I told him to either take her to the poiice station or to drop her off in front of it so that she hopefully would be safe since I was no where near her and it would take too long for me to get there.
The man hung up. I consulted with my husband and we called Bakersfield PD - they told me since the call came to me and I did not have a number or a location that I would need to call my local police department. I called them and they said there was nothing I could do but I could put a report in online or call after 9am and they could take the report on the phone. I then got another call from the man. He called back and I could hear my daughter screaming in the background. He was threatening that should would not live any longer if I didn't pay up. Again I told him to take her to the police station or to let her go and I didn't have the amount of money he wanted.
I called our local police again and they said that there was nothing I could do. So I cried and laid down with the phone in my hand waiting for another call and hoping and praying my daughter would make it through this. An hour and a half later (3:33am) - I get another call from this man. He says he is outside the group home and wants me to call them to let her in - I try to explain that they won't let her in because her bed is closed and she is not allowed back to live. He doesn't understand - I keep trying to explain it is a group home that only allows people in that were assigned there by the state or county and she has no assignment there. He is upset. Desperately I beg him to take him to a bus stop (since at this point it is obvious he wants to get rid of her and I am just praying he won't kill her). I tell him I will pay if he puts her on the bus. He hangs up.
I make tons of phone calls to Greyhound and they refuse to sell me a ticket for the next bus because it is too soon and they will not allow someone to buy a ticket over the phone unless it is more than 2 hours. I buy the next ticket which is like at 7am - knowing that probably won't work but I have no idea what else to do - I am nearly 5 hours away. I have no idea how badly hurt my daughter is and cannot do anything to help her.
4:03am - he calls back - he is there and will try to get her on the bus that leaves in just a few minutes. He hangs up. I am nearly throwing up I am so scared and nervous.
4:09am - he calls back - I can hear other voices - he is trying to force Greyhound to accept her despite the fact she looks really bad - he explains (like he keeps claiming throughout our whole phone conversation between threats) that he found her after she had been jumped and he is trying to get her back to me - they talk to me on the phone I beg - please let her on the bus (I just want her away from him) - Goddess please do not have him get on the bus with her. It sounds like they accept her and then he insists I send him money - I do - moneygram - to strangely enough his real name - I so will get him as soon as my daughter is safe.
Now just to wait and hope and pray that she really is on the bus, stays on the bus and is ok enough to get to me.
Then I picked her up - her bus was late - the man kept calling me trying to get more money - it was horrible. I saw my daughter - she looked so beat up. She wouldn't really speak to me. I took her to her social workers office and finally tried urgent care - my daughter admitted she had been raped and so an ambulance was called and she was taken to UCDavis. She was released late that night and taken to a safe place to get a rape kit. I love my daughter and it breaks my heart that she went through this. Sadly she would continue making such choices that could put her in a similar situation... I just hope before anything horrible happens to her again, she turns her life around. She is an amazing and creative intelligent young lady who has a wicked sense of humor. I would hate for the world to lose such a vibrant young lady.
_________________________________________________________________________
Update 09/03/2014 - Michael Lenoir and one of the prostitutes that tortured my daughter are to have pre-trial in the next week. Both are held without bail.
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