Caleb Fast (Escambia County Sheriff’s Office)
A 29-year-old man in Florida was arrested over the weekend for allegedly holding captive a woman he met through the “Facebook Dating” app, keeping her in his home against her will for days while he beat and sexually assaulted her.
Caleb Fast was taken into custody on Sunday and charged with one count each of kidnapping — false imprisonment, battery, aggravated assault, and sexual assault, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
According to a probable cause affidavit, deputies with the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office responded to an emergency call at about 4:53 a.m. on Sunday at the St. John’s Episcopal Church in the 400 block of Live Oak Avenue in Pensacola, Florida. The church is about 200 miles west of Tallahassee.
First responders found the victim, who was not identified, and said she needed medical attention. Deputies noted the woman appeared to be “visibly shaken and nervous” and had suffered “an obvious injury to her right eye, which was completely swollen shut.”
In an interview with investigators, the victim said she and Fast met through the Facebook Dating app, and the two had been romantically involved for about two weeks before the attack. The victim said she went to Fast’s home voluntarily on Thursday but claimed that when she tried to leave on Friday, he would not allow her. Instead, she said he grabbed a handgun and told her that “he would kill her if she tried to leave.”
The victim said she believed Fast’s threat because he had punched her in the stomach the previous week and had been urinating blood.
While being held against her will, Fast allegedly “got angry with her and punched her repeatedly in the face,” which caused the injury to her eye. He then allegedly said that he would beat her even worse if she tried to leave.
“[The victim] advised that after some time had passed, [Fast] told her to take off her clothes,” the affidavit states. “[The victim] stated she told Fast she didn’t want to. [The victim] indicated that due to Fast hitting her, she didn’t want to be further injured, so she went to the back bedroom, on the right, where she removed her clothes.”
She said Fast then sexually assaulted her.
The affidavit said the victim escaped Fast’s home on Sunday when he got drunk on a bottle of wine and passed out. She got out of the house and ran to St. John’s Episcopal Church, where she contacted authorities.
The victim said Fast had kept her locked up since Thursday.
Authorities obtained a warrant for Fast’s arrest and took him into custody. He is being held on $167,000 bond, records show. He is scheduled to appear before Judge Linda L. Nobles on Nov. 9 for his arraignment.
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