At trial, Kollias and Ewo testified about their horrific experiences. Im not going to close my eyes. Police said Nicholas Kollias, of Northbrook, Illinois, and Ani Okeke Ewo, of Aurora, Illinois, were abducted and held hostage, and one suffered a gunshot wound to the leg. "At that point she really wasn't free to leave.". A former Upstate New York studentis speaking out for the first time about the abuse and torture he suffered when abducted in December 2015. The two were dragged into a bathroom and tortured for hours. A SWAT team rescuedKollias and Ewo that Sunday night from a home some four miles from the Rochester college campus. At trial, Kollias and Ewo testified about their horrific experiences. Nicholas Kollias, of Northbrook, Illinois, and Ani Okeke Ewo, of Aurora, Illinois, were reported missing Saturday evening, hours after they were last seen near the school. Rochester student recalls torture, sex abuse in kidnapping Nine people were accused of roles in the abduction and torture of the two men. Find service information, send flowers, and leave memories and thoughts in the Guestbook for your loved one. Jurors also heard audiotapes of phone calls that Kollias said he was forced to make on Saturday and Sunday to his financial institutions, seeking to raise his credit lines or get access to investment accounts. Ani Okeke Ewo is a student at The University of Rochester who is believed to be in his early twenties and played as a cornerback for The University of Rochester football team and hometown Romeoville, Illinois. "There was always someone, at least one or two individuals that were kind of watching over us," said Nicholas. Six Charged In New York Abduction Of Two College Students - CBS News 6 charged after 2 Chicago-area students abducted in New York "Very quickly he ran back inside and shut the door," said Peters. Nicholas says the kidnappers turned on loud music to cover the sounds of what's to come. This provider has 31 years of experience and is affiliated with Leesburg Regional Medical Center. Empieza iniciando sesin con tu cuenta de Amazon, Segn tu ubicacin, se te ha dirigido a audible.es. Privacy Policy | "I'm not going to give up without a fight," he recalled thinking. He also had shards of glass embedded in his eardrum when a light bulb was smashed on his head. Six arrested for kidnapping University of Rochester students and "They were in a nice car. Strickland and company then wanted revenge. "Very small school, private university, only 8,000 undergrad, and so the football team was extremely close," said Nicholas. After more than 40 hours of sheer hell, Nicholas and Ani are reunited with their families. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". By clicking submit, you agree to receive emails from Rolling Out and accept our web terms of use and privacy and cookie policy. The night ahead was looking good. Five have pleaded guilty; four are now on trial before state Supreme Court Justice Alex Renzi. -- University of Rochester Spokesperson Sara Miller. Second person pleads guilty in UR kidnapping case. Also the fact that they had been out of contact with everybody else.". Earlier Monday night, police said they recovered the BMW SUV that they believed the two were traveling in before they were abducted. He also filed a $10 million lawsuit against those convicted in the abduction. Lora and Rolldan face kidnapping and criminal possession of a weapon charges. Samantha Hughes and Leah Gigliotti, the girls who lured the football players to that house of horrors, eventually gave police two addresses. Rochester Police said a SWAT team rescued the two students at approx at 9:20 p.m. Sunday. In announcing the charges, police in Rochester, N.Y., did not provide any further details on the alleged kidnapping of Ani Okeke Ewo, of Naperville, a football player for the University of. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. Cancela en cualquier momento. Kollias went into detail about the assault to one media outlet and stated that he thought it would be the end of his life, but he was going to go out fighting. Darla Crane Age, Full Biography, Where Is She Now? "She was trying to give us the runaround. He's also a classical pianist. Someone from inside comes out and sees the swarm of heavily armed SWAT officers. University of Rochester Kidnapping Survivor Nicholas Kollias: 'I Didn't Lydell Strickland, David Alcaraz-Ubiles, Inalia Rolldan andRuth Loraare now on trial for alleged roles in the abduction and subsequent brutality. The two friends were the. Rolldan and Lora reportedly guarded the abducted students, until SWAT teams rescued the two on Sunday. Solomia Maievska Every Single Fact About The Model. Nicholas Kollias and Ani Okeke Ewo, both University of Rochester football players from Illinois, were lured to a home for what they thought was a Saturday night house party. Police: 4 women and 2 men charged in U of R students' kidnapping - News - Fairport-E.Rochester Post - Fairport, NY. He says during their 40-hour ordeal, he received more of the abuse than Ani did, and he thinks he knows why. He described in graphic and grisly detail the violent assaults inflicted by his captors, who came and went from the room where the two men were being held. Remembering the horror, Kollias alternated between an occasionally firm voice and long silent pauses, as he led jurors through the brutality of the weekend. Police haven't yet said how they figured . Nicholas Kollias and Ani Okeke Ewo, both seniors at the school, were reported missing on Saturday evening under "suspicious circumstances," police said. Release of the indictments, while partly redacted for sensitivity, offered a harrowing glimpse intowhat UR President Joel Seligman would later describe as the "intimidating and demeaning treatment" that the pair endured. He was shot in the other leg, and continually beaten with knives, bats, and even a chainsaw, he said. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. What Nicholas doesn't know is that the cavalry is on the way. Disfruta de ms de 90.000 audiolibros y podcasts originales durante tu mes de prueba. Three others also have pleaded guilty. Waiting for your permission to load facebook comments. "It was exhausting," said Peters. I was thinking about my family, parents and God. As of 2007, the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau is 19,195. Police: 2 New York college students abducted, held hostage Two University of Rochester students abducted before being freed by The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. According to a police statement, the young men from Illinois had been forcibly abducted and held at gunpoint, during which they were robbed and beaten with fists, clubs and other objects. According to the Tribune, the jury was also showna video, shot on a phone by one of the kidnappers, of men in masks with chainsaws, beating and demeaning the victims. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. ', The university spokesman issued a separate statement, saying: 'The University of Rochester is grateful to the Rochester Police Department for the sustained efforts that led to the swift arrests and charges in the abduction of our two students. This week Evil Talks: Chilling Confessions spotlights the disturbing case of Ani Okeke Ewo and Nicholas Kollias, who were kidnapped and tortured in a drug related revenge attack. He says although the nightmare he survived will never leave him, he's working hard to not let it define him. Dec. 7, 2015 This pocket Bluetooth printer lets you print your precious memories before they hit Instagram. A SWAT team rescuedKollias and Ewo that Sunday night from a home some four miles from the Rochester college campus. ", "They said 'Don't worry, they're not gonna be hurt,'" said Peters. The Democrat and Chronicle reports that. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. The remaining five defendants have all already pleaded guilty to various roles in the incident. Cops say Isaiah Smith then used that apartment to rob Lydell Strickland and his gang of thugs. Seminole, North American Indian tribe of Creek origin who speak a Muskogean language. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. "It essentially showed 30 seconds of torture, and when you put that in perspective that was only 30 seconds out of almost 40 hours, so you can only imagine what they went through during the other 39 hours and change.". Nicholas Kollias and Ani Okeke Ewo, both 21-year-old students, were lured to a house several miles from campus for what they believed was a party. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Then the ones who lured the football players into the sadistic trap give up even more. David Alcaraz-Ubiles was found guilty of kidnapping and weapons charges and sentenced to 15 years in prison. The abductors used two women to persuade the UR students to go with them to the Harvest Street house. Police: 2 New York college students abducted, held hostage Who is Ani Okeke Ewo And What Happened To Him? Chief Michael Ciminelli described the SWAT rescue of two University of Rochester seniors Nicholas Kollias, 21, and Ani Okeke-Ewo, 21. By about 1775 those migrants had begun to be known under the name Seminole, probably derived from the Creek word siman-li, meaning . Police said they were repeatedly beaten with fists, clubs and other. This then led to gang members plotting revenge and organizing the kidnapping. I always wanted to continue playing football in college. Police said they were . Six arrested for allegedly kidnapping, beating University of Rochester Now in the bedroom with Ani, surviving is what Nicholas is desperately trying to do. The students jump in the girls' car and off they go. First the room went dark, then masked men, clothed in black, burst into the littered living room at the Harvest Street house. It turns out the kidnappers got the wrong guys Cops say the target was a completely different University of Rochester football player named Isaiah Smith. "The torture consists of something you would see in a movie, but it's not a movie because this is real life," he said. Six people have been charged in their abduction. According to police, Ewo and fellow student Nicholas Kollias were abducted Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015 in . Kollias and Ewo were sexually assaulted,. "I thought they were burning down the house," he said, "but it was the SWAT team saving our lives.". In December 2016, Strickland, who was believed to be the leader, was sentenced to 155 years in prison after being found guilty on 31 charges, that included assault, gang assault, and robbery. "I mean obviously he was in better shape than I was, he wasn't shot. They were instead held against their will, beaten, shot and sexually assaulted over the course of 40 hours. Nicholas spent the next 25 days in intensive care. "They started saying that I was lying to them and that my cards weren't working anymore and then they said that they were going to kill us.". Then out of the darkness a figure appears. "My life was put in jeopardy on numerous occasions all because of Isaiah getting bailed out, and poor decision-making on many university officials.". He was then hit in the head with a baseball bat and dragged into the bathroom along with Ewo. They were instead. "I was just kind of feeling worse, not optimistic at all that we would be found.". "For me, I have always said I don't want this to hold me back, I don't want this to label me," said Nicholas. St. Petersburg College has a campus in the city. "The drug dealers, when they came back, were looking for the people who lived in that apartment, not realizing that it was just being used by somebody else. For 40 hours, Nicholas Kollias and Ani Okeke Ewo were tied up in a bedroom in the house at 22 Harvest Street in Rochester. Police say they. The First Seminole War (1817-18) began over attempts by U.S. authorities to recapture runaway Black slaves . Prueba Audible gratis durante 30 das. "I just remember like touching my head and having all this blood just coming down everywhere," said Nicholas. Nicholas Kollias and his college buddy spent nearly two days in hell, held captive, tortured, even shot. "As we started to put all this whole story together, we realized something really was not right," said Rochester Police Deputy Chief Scott Peters. Relatives. Several masked men brandish guns, knivesand chainsaws as they threaten and taunt the two students, who lie bleeding and injured on a bathroom floor. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Perhaps, had the campus authorities had not ignored Smiths drug dealing due to his talent on the football field, then Ewo and his friend wouldnt have suffered any of the events. "There was remnants of tape around their ankles and hands. Something particularly horrible like this, Schwartz told the Chicago Tribune, sometimes its worse than homicide. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. RPD: U of R students targeted for kidnapping | WHAM As Christine and I got ready for this trial, it was harder to figure out what we weren't going to use than it was to figure out what we were going to use. The defendants convinced a woman to flirt with Ewo on Facebook. He managed to stand before being subdued. Inalia Rolldan, (also known as Sky), 19, gang member; Nicholas Kollias (Nick), 21, student football player (U. of Rochester) and classically trained pianist; Ani Okeke Ewo (Ani), 21, student football player (U. of Rochester). Police said Nicholas Kollias, of Northbrook, Illinois, who was shot, and Ani Okeke Ewo,. Outside, a SWAT team sets explosive charges on two doors and breaches them. Rochester police chief Michael Ciminelli told reporters other students should not be concerned for their safety. Nicholas Kollias has filed a $10 million lawsuit against the nine kidnappers. But is all this really just about money? What was the monsters' motive for perpetrating this horrific crime? They keep Nicholas in the bathroom. "They put me into the shower where they started washing me, and the entire tub is just red," said Nicholas. Kollias was with him at the time of the kidnapping. Bound, beaten, tortured: Students survive 40-hour ordeal Lydell Strickland, 26, was sentenced to155 years in prison for planning the attack as well as charges ofrobbery, assault and sex abuse. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The two were rescued by a Rochester police SWAT team. As the sun began to set on Sunday, Kollias thought he was going to die from his injuries. The following day, a police SWAT team entered the house, rescuing the students, and nine people were eventually arrested and charged in the horrific incident. Who is Ani Okeke Ewo And What Happened To Him. Jurors were shown a cellphone video that captured a portion of the ordeal. Kollias testified that he concluded his abductors were planning to keep him alive only until the banks opened on Monday morning and they could finish draining his accounts. "It's clearly his face. Few details have been released about the case so far, and even the defense attorneys of some of the suspects say they haven't received a full story about what happened. However, on Sunday evening there was a huge explosion and flash as the SWAT team burst into the house and rescued the two men. Nothing seemed unusual or abnormal.". In the moments after Ewo and Kollias arrived, the house went dark and a group of masked men pounced on the pair, binding them in duct tape and taking them into a bathroom. All rights reserved (About Us). Matthew Schwartz, one of the lead prosecutors in the case, marveled that the students were able to survive. They accept 4 insurance plans. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated 4/4/2023), Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (updated 1/26/2023). "A normal person that you meet up with is not gonna tell that to the police, so we knew that it wasn't normal.". The next morning the two football students were reported missing and campus officials started an investigation, being in luck, one of their teammates remembered the girl who tried to friend him on Facebook and let the investigators know. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. "I didn't think I was going to make it until (that) Monday," Kollias, 23, told theChicago TribuneTuesday. Things have reached a fever pitch. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. All rights reserved (About Us). Cancela cuando quieras. The students were reported missing Saturday evening, hours after they were last seen near the school. It was not just about money, but revenge. 00:11 EDT 12 Dec 2015. University of Rochester Public Safety officers and Rochester Police know the clock is ticking. SWAT Team Rescues Forcibly Abducted College Students - Newsweek "I said 'Here's the two locations, plan cold hits on both houses, you're gonna do one and then we're gonna have to do the second one if the first house wasn't right.'". He also filed a $10 million lawsuit against those convicted in the abduction. Nicholas Kollias and Ani Okeke Ewo were last seen around 2 a.m. Saturday near the school. "I only made it about halfway across the room before I felt something like being pressed up to the side of my upper leg, and then the next thing I remember is just being on the ground.". Sources have told theDemocrat and Chroniclethat Ewo was wrongly identified as an individual involved in the robbery of local drug dealers, and that mistake prompted the kidnapping. "One of four boys, just a really close-knit family, very caring parents," Nicholas tells Crime Watch Daily. Kollias also suffered a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to his leg in the ordeal. The ambush was quick, the weapons everywhere. One had been shot in the leg ahead of the rescue. In December 2015, Nicholas Kollias and fellow senior Ani Okeke Ewo, both University of Rochester football players, were kidnapped near the New York campus. Upon entry, the SWAT team sees two individuals. "He was like trying to untie us real fast.". Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated 4/4/2023), Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (updated 1/26/2023). Associated Press It's believed that the first four lured University of Rochester football playerAni Okeke Ewo and former football player Nicholas Kollias to a house on Harvest Street and proceeded to beat them with fists and clubs, demanding their money, credit cards and bank numbers. "I didn't know what was going on," said Nicholas. Elige entre ms de 90.000 audiolibros y podcasts originales. She had to go to work, so she said 'Can I meet up with you tomorrow and we can finish this,'" said Deputy Chief Scott Peters. Survivor Story 5 - Nicholas Kollias and Ani Okeke Ewo "The house just lit up and just shook," said Nicholas. Sign up to receive breaking True Crime Daily news, exclusive stories and behind-the-scenes info. His gridiron goal became a reality at the University of Rochester in New York. Hughes was less than helpful. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Forty hours later, one of the captors decided to let them go when a SWAT team entered the house freeing the pair. He still has a titanium rod in his left leg and a bullet lodged in his right calf. The other four take their chances at trial. "This is a once-in-a-career rescue. The second victim [Kollias] being involved was pure happenstance, Schwartz told the Tribune. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. When the woman invited him to a party, Ewo asked if he could bring along Kollias. All in order to make the pair reveal their debit card PIN numbers. "It was eerily silent," said Rochester Police Deputy Chief Scott Peters. A former Upstate New York studentis speaking out for the first time about the abuse and torture he suffered when abducted in December 2015. Crime Watch Daily reached out to Ani Okeke Ewo for comment, but he never responded. On December 4, 2015, Ani and Kollias were hanging out with their friends from the football team, when they were approached by a lady Samantha Hughes, who tried to friend the two players on Facebook earlier in the week. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. "At this point, my body was broken down and I didn't know how much longer I could go on," he said. We may earn a commission from links on this page. But soon the changing scenery catches Nicholas's attention. Even with all he went through Nicholas Kollias still managed to graduate college a semester early and now works for a financial services firm. "The plan really was to basically drain all the bank accounts," said Scott Peters. Those charged face multiple counts of kidnapping and assault. Sadly, Nicholas and Ani are no longer friends. Despite his reservations about going off campus to a high-crime area, Kollias decided to tag along and got into a car with the women and Ewo. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? But there was one key piece of evidence the jurors would see. Despus, 9,99/mes. The two students, Nicholas Kollias and Ani Okeke Ewo, were reported missing Saturday after they were last seen near campus in the early morning hours. "It was dark out and from the outside it seemed like a decent house," said Nicholas. Listen for free View show details . Ewo and a female acquaintance had been flirting via Facebook, and that woman had invited them over. While one of the kidnappers records, two of the others are seen threatening Ani Okeke Ewo with a hedge-trimmer, and then prodding Nicholas lying on the floor covered in blood. Senior year, and fall semester at the University of Rochester is in full swing. Lydell Strickland: Two counts of first-degree gang assault, six counts of first-degree robbery, twocounts of second-degree robbery, nine counts of first-degree predatory sexual assault, first-degree criminal use of a firearm and multiple counts of third- and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Our focus as a university is on our two students as they recover from their ordeal. Police said they were targeted by their assailants. They just looked like they had been through hell. Three of the defendants are sentenced to seven to 15 years in prison. Seminole is located at 2750?19?N 8247?6?W / 27.83861N 82.785W / 27.83861; -82.785 (27.838502, -82.784913). I was thinking about my family, parents, and God. But Nicholas wasn't all tackles and touchdowns. It's deeply disturbing. In partnership with There was no evidence presented at trial that Ani was in any involved in planning or carrying out the kidnapping. Six people have been charged in the abduction of two University of Rochester students, PEOPLE confirms. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Friends and family contact the University of Rochester Department of Public Safety, which alerts Rochester Police. Brian DeCarolis, who was hired to represent Gigliotti, said the two men appearde to have been misled to the apartment. Then they see a closed door.