Police: Woman shackled, drugged, forced to clean Ellis County home

OVILLA, Texas - A husband and wife from Ellis County are facing charges in a kidnapping and human trafficking case. Police say they drugged, kidnapped and kept a woman as a slave inside their home for two weeks.

The Ovilla Police Department arrested 51-year-old Jean Claude Demars and 48-year-old Charlotte Kelly Demars last week on kidnapping charges.

The department said someone last week reported that a woman was being held against her will at a home in the 900 block of Red Oak Creek Road. When officers arrived, they found a woman shackled and chained to a bed.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, the victim said she had been in a previous long-term relationship with Jean-Claude. They had been in an on-and-off affair for years. He’d been paying for her to stay in a motel. When he stopped, she ended up in a woman’s shelter.

The victim said Jean-Claude picked her up from the shelter on Jan. 14 and took her to a gas station to get a drink. She started to feel loopy afterward and woke up restrained, the affidavit states.

The room officers found her in was covered in feces. It had a bucket for her to use the bathroom in and a paper plate for her to eat off of. She would be allowed to clean and then was re-chained, according to the affidavit.

Charlotte reportedly had the key to the shackles. The victim said she was told she was Charlotte’s slave.

The victim said she was finally able to get help when the Demars gave her a tablet for entertainment. She used a messaging app to contact a friend who called 911.

According to the arrest report, the Demars told officers they did shackle the victim but only because the victim requested it to avoid killing them in their sleep. Investigators don’t believe that story.

Police also found a variety of different-sized pills inside Charlotte’s bag. The lab is testing them to see if they may have been the used to drug the victim.

Police said the investigation into the kidnapping and human trafficking offense is ongoing. The Texas Rangers are involved.

The Demars are each being held on a $150,000 bond.