Report details kidnapping, escape of mother, son in Pahrump

The window they used to escape their captors was boarded up and blacked out.

For about three months, officials said, James Thatcher, 28, with the help of his girlfriend and their toddler’s nanny, had kept his 52-year-old mother and 34-year-old brother locked away and tied to a blood-stained mattress inside a bedroom in his Pahrump apartment, the secured window taunting the possibility of escape.

During that time, according to the trio’s arrest report, the mother and son — both mentally disabled — had been cut off from access to their monthly Social Security income. Detectives also would find checkbooks belonging to the pair filled with signed blank checks during a search of Thatcher’s apartment, the report said.

But all of that ended about 4 p.m. Nov. 16, when the mother and son found a way to remove the sliding portion of the window and escape while the suspects were not home. After crawling out, officials said, they flagged down a neighbor to call for help.

Thatcher and his girlfriend, 30-year-old Chelsea Demille, face charges of first-degree kidnapping, false imprisonment and elder abuse, according the Nye County Sheriff’s Office. The nanny, 19-year-old Sandra Wombles, also faces false imprisonment and elder abuse charges.

When law enforcement arrived that day, the mother and son “had a foul odor” and noticeably chapped lips “possibly due to dehydration,” according to the arrest report. The mother also still had rope wrapped around her wrists and ankles.

They were taken to Pahrump’s Desert View Hospital for treatment. Their conditions were not immediately available Thursday.

While being held, the woman told investigators, “the two of them were only allowed outside of the room for bathroom breaks but at times had to urinate on the floor.” Inside the room, the two here handcuffed and bound to the mattress.

In a later interview with detectives, Thatcher admitted to strapping them to the mattress and keeping them locked in a room, the report said.

“James stated that he also binds his mother’s wrists and ankles together and had taken her cell phone from her several weeks ago, leaving the two of them confined within the room with no way of calling for help,” detectives wrote in the report.

The mother also accused Demille, her son’s girlfriend, of physically abusing her, although Demille has denied those accusations, the report said. Both Demille and Wombles, however, admitted to knowing the mother and son were confined to the room during the day.

Filthy conditions

At the end of their report, detectives painted a picture of a filthy, dark room. It was nearly empty, except for the torn and stained mattress in the center of the bedroom.

They wrote about a set of “law enforcement grade handcuffs” hanging from a metal bar. And above the mattress, a steel cable was strapped across what they described as several “anchor points” on both sides of the bed, the report said.

“There was tearing in the mattress around the anchor points along the sides of the mattress that may have been caused by physical resistance,” detectives wrote.

On the mattress, there were two pillows with what appeared to be blood stains. High in the corners of the rooms were surveillance cameras pointed at the mattress. And on one of the walls, the detectives wrote, were two fist-sized indentations.

“There was no clothing, furniture or personal items within the room,” the report said.

Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.