The Texas woman who was caught on surveillance camera in shackles and randomly ringing doorbells in a Montgomery neighborhood has spoken out for the first time since the harrowing ordeal.
Speaking with KTRK on Sunday, the 32-year-old woman said she was unaware of the now-viral video until this week. The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said she was “scared” the night she rang on neighbor’s doorbells but declined to reveal why she fled the home she shared with her boyfriend, Dennis Ray Collins, 49.
According to the New York Post, the woman told police that she was sexually assaulted before escaping from bondage and seeking help from her neighbors. After ringing two doorbells, the woman reportedly returned to her home but her boyfriend wasn’t home. The Post reported that she then took a car and drove to the Dallas area.
“I had gone to be with my family in Dallas, and I just wanted to block out the world,” she explained to KTRK.
The woman went on to say that Collins, whom she had been with since April, “wasn’t the man I knew.” As CrimeOnline previously reported, police found Collins dead of a self-inflicted wound while performing a welfare check at his home on August 29.
She said, “Dennis, I believe in my heart, that’s not who he truly is, so it hurts me to see him bashed online.”
The woman claimed Collins followed her to Dallas, at her request, because she was having anxiety. She told KTRK that said she spoke to Collins on the phone after she left and he didn’t reveal any plans to kill himself.
“It is truly difficult to understand the duality that exists within each of us. People would like to paint Dennis or myself as entirely good or entirely evil, light or dark, every human has both of these inside,” she said, adding that she forgave her boyfriend before he allegedly took his own life.
“It is hard to understand how someone who treated me with such kindness is the person I saw that night.”
[Featured image: Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office]
