A woman says she was forced against her will to travel in her car across the country until she finally made her escape at a gas station. Video shows the moment the terrified woman escapes from her accused kidnapper at a gas station.
A woman who was allegedly forced by a man to travel in her car across the country finally made her escape from her alleged kidnapper at a New Jersey gas station in a heart-stopping moment caught on camera.
Barefoot and wearing only shorts and a t-shirt, the woman runs inside the convenience store, slams the door shut and deadbolts the lock just in time.
Her actions put an end to what authorities are calling "a year-long nightmare."
The employee who was working at the time tells Inside Edition that the woman then said: "He kidnapped me. He kidnapped me. Call police."
The employee did just that. The woman who said she was kidnapped later told police she met James Parrillo last February in New Mexico and began a relationship with him.
She wanted to leave after a month, but she alleges that Parrillo held her against her will.
Gas station owner Bobby Madaan says the woman visited the store days earlier to plan her escape.
"She looked at the door and she knew there's a deadbolt," he tells Inside Edition. "So she had planned this that one day."
Parrillo managed to flee on a bicycle but was picked up by police two miles from the gas station.
A 2019 article in Backpacker Magazine reported that Parrillo was roaming California hiking trails looking for potential victims.
A least seven women have accused him of kidnapping and rape, according to that article. Two of those women allege that Parrillo held them captive for more than a year.
Parrillo was not charged in those alleged incidents.
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