Woman escapes at a Burlington County gas station after a kidnapping that lasted a year and spanned the country

A woman who was abducted in California and held captive for a year and taken across the country against her will under the threat of death, escaped from her captor at a Burlington County gas station earlier this month, authorities said Friday.

The woman, whom police did not identify, burst into the office of the Conoco Gas Station in Bass River Township, and told employees she had been kidnapped and held captive by a man who threatened her life, authorities said.

New Jersey State Police soon found the woman’s captor, who initially refused to give his real name but was later identified as James Parrillo, two miles from the gas station, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest. Parrillo, 57, was charged with kidnapping, strangulation, aggravated assault, and related crimes. He is being held in the Burlington County Jail.

The woman’s escape capped a year in which Parrillo, of Bass River Township, choked and threatened her, saying he would kill her and her family if she tried to get away, according to the affidavit.

An attorney for Parrillo could not be reached for comment.

“This is a deeply disturbing case in which the defendant allegedly held a woman against her will for nearly a year, while traveling with her throughout the country, before ending up here in New Jersey where she was able to escape,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a statement.

Authorities said there was cause to believe Parrillo may have engaged in similar “predatory conduct” with other people in other states.

The year of threats and captivity, according to the affidavit, started at a similar place to where it ended: a gas station.

The woman told authorities she met Parrillo last February at a gas station on Interstate 10 in New Mexico, where he asked her for a ride to Arizona, and she agreed, the affidavit said. The two began a relationship that quickly turned sour, the document said.

In March 2022, when the two were in California, Parrillo put his hands around the woman’s neck, beginning a pattern of abuse that made her feel threatened and unable to leave the relationship, according to the affidavit. Parrillo also took away the woman’s phone, cutting her off from her family, the affidavit said, and he used her debit cards while forcing her to travel with him across the country.

Since late December, Parrillo and the woman had been staying in a rented room in Bass River Township, the document said. Earlier this month, the woman saw her chance to escape while at the Conoco Gas station, where she noticed that the door had a deadbolt that locked from the inside, Platkin said in a statement.

On the day she escaped, authorities said, Parrillo had beaten and choked the woman inside the rented room they shared. When the attack stopped, the woman ran out of the house in 42-degree weather, wearing only shorts and a shirt, authorities said.

She made her way to the gas station where she locked the office door and told the attendant she had been kidnapped and held captive for about a year, authorities said.

Jetin “Bobby” Madaan, co-owner and manager of the gas station, said in an interview Friday that he vividly recalled the moment the woman arrived at the station. She looked scared and was shaking, he said, and she had bruises on her neck.

”She just keeps repeating, ‘I have been kidnapped for over a year,’ ” said Madaan. He and a coworker called police and stayed with the woman until state troopers arrived about 15 minutes later.

Parrillo had followed the woman to the gas station, authorities said, but rode away on his bicycle when he realized the door was locked. Troopers later found Parrillo on foot about two miles from the station and placed him under arrest.