Crime News
Man Held 16-Year-Old Girl for Months as Sex Captive in Basement
By Associated Press
Apr 13, 2003, 16:30

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A 67-year-old retiree allegedly kept two women chained as sexual captives in a concrete bunker built under his yard and he may have had more victims, police said Thursday.

Retired handyman John T. Jamelske is accused of abducting a 16-year-old girl and abusing her while holding her captive since October.

He was arrested Tuesday night with the girl in his car after she managed to secretly make two phone calls to her family while they visited a couple of businesses, police said.

Jamelske was charged with kidnapping, rape, sexual abuse and sodomy. He was being held without bail. It wasn't immediately clear Thursday whether he had an attorney.

Onondaga County prosecutor William Fitzpatrick said a 26-year-old woman also identified Jamelske as the man who held her hostage and sexually assaulted her two years ago.

Authorities found identification belonging to a third woman at Jamelske's home in DeWitt, a Syracuse suburb, and were trying to locate her. They also found photographs of several other women, at least one of whom appears to be chained in Jamelske's homemade vault.

"He had this place for a number of years. It wouldn't have had any other use but human storage," Fitzpatrick said. "My instincts are this may have been going on for a long time."

Sheriff Kevin Walsh said it appeared Jamelske, who lived alone after his wife died in 1999, traveled extensively in the Northeast and Canada and authorities nationwide have been sent information about him.

The 16-year-old told police Jamelske held her captive in an underground room since offering her a ride last October and had only in recent weeks begun taking her out publicly. The teen was never reported missing because she had a history of running away from home.

In 2001, the 26-year-old woman described being held captive in a bunker before being set free. She was unable to give any clues to her location, but after Jamelske's arrest, she identified him as her captor, authorities said.

The sheriff said Jamelske built the vault in 1985, just off the basement, about three feet below the lawn. It consisted of two 12-square-foot rooms with 8-foot ceilings and a four-foot square steel door in the basement was the only entrance.

The bunker was furnished with a small tub, chemical toilet, microwave oven and mattress, Walsh said. It has ducts for heating and electricity and an intercom.

Jamelske's two sons said they both knew about the bunker but did not know what their father used it for.

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