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Dating APP Hell: 'He Has A Knife' NJ Teen Held Hostage For Year In PA, Authorities Say

An 18-year-old New Jersey woman texted 911 for "help escaping" after being held against her will in Pennsylvania for a year by a man she met through a dating app, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Daily Voice. 

Nikolaus James Breland.

Nikolaus James Breland.

Photo Credit: Washington County Jail

32-year-old Nikolaus Breland, of Monongahela, was arrested on Sunday, Nov. 20, according to the complaint.

The teenager said that her abusive boyfriend who had been holding her captive was asleep and she wanted help escaping, she told the Washington County 911 center around 9:45 p.m., according to the criminal complaint  

***WARNING the following details may be disturbing to some readers***

She had taken his phone and told them "he has a knife" but she could not leave on her own as he had "boarded up" the windows and doors, according to the affidavit of probable cause. 

The Monongahela police soon arrived at 717 West Main Street arresting Breland, and found the teenager "visibly shaken," as detailed in the complaint. 

When the police entered Breland’s home, they discovered a mattress on the floor in front of a fireplace surrounded by bags of food and water bottles—  with handcuffs on the mattress chained to a nearby wall. 

During an interview with the police, the girl explained that while living in NJ she met Breland who was living in PA and the two soon met up, but after going to a hotel he held her captive. They began to "live at hotels" while he repeatedly raped her, taking videos and photos of her and ranking them as "good" or bad," as she explained to the police according to the court records. Soon he began to prostitute her to other men— all of the sex was unprotected, according to the girl's statement cited in the complaint. 

He also marked by forcing her to get tattoos on both of her arms, according to the affidavit. 

She had previously tried to escape on "multiple occasions" but he allegedly would grab her by the neck, lock her in a bathroom without windows, or threaten her with a knife to her throat, as detailed in the court documents. 

Breland has been charged with felonies for promoting prostitution and sexual assault, misdemeanors for false imprisonment, terroristic threats, and simple assault, court records show.

He has been held in the Washington County jail on $50,000 bond. His preliminary has been scheduled before Magisterial District Judge Mark Wilson on Dec. 7 at 10 a.m., according to his court docket. 

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