A Water Leak, an Attic, and a Life Held in Silence

There are stories that arrive like a knock at an unexpected door, stories that remind us how much can happen within the walls we pass every day without knowing. In a multifamily home on Summer Street in Malden, Massachusetts, a landlord went looking for the source of a water leak. What she found instead was a woman who had been held against her will for six weeks in an unfinished attic, a space no one was supposed to occupy. The discovery was accidental. The rescue was not.

Jordende Pierre, 29, was arrested Thursday by U.S. Marshals and charged with trafficking a person for sexual servitude, kidnapping, and indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or older . He has pleaded not guilty . Prosecutors allege that Pierre met the woman through a dating app, picked her up from a rehabilitation facility, and brought her to the Malden home . There, they say, she was given drugs, sexually assaulted, and forced to have encounters with other men whom Pierre arranged to visit the property .

The details presented in court were stark. Assistant District Attorney Jacob McCrindle described the scene officers encountered: “She clearly had not eaten. She was dirty. She was living, essentially, in squalor in this attic area” . The woman was found naked on a mat beside a five-gallon bucket containing urine . The attic had a plywood floor, exposed wiring and insulation, and was lit only by a small red light . Police observed bite marks and scabs on her skin .

The landlord, Qing Sun, told reporters she and her husband went to the property because of a water leak. Tenants initially blocked access to certain rooms. When the couple made their way to the attic, they discovered the woman and a man, who ran past them. Sun called 911 . She said Pierre was not one of her tenants and that she had no knowledge of anyone living in the attic .

Neighbors described the house with unease. One called it “Frankenstein’s home.” Another spoke of a “rotating cast of characters” coming and going, of parties and loud music, of police having responded to complaints before . But no one, it seems, knew what was happening in the attic. “She was 500 feet away, and we couldn’t do anything,” one neighbor said. “Because we didn’t hear anything” .

The case has raised questions that extend beyond the specific allegations. The woman was at a rehabilitation facility before she was taken to the home . She struggled with substance abuse, prosecutors said . Those vulnerabilities, the state alleges, were exploited systematically. Pierre also had an open case for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in Somerville and was out on bail at the time of the alleged captivity .

Pierre is being held without bail and is due back in court on October 6 . Police have not ruled out additional arrests . For now, the woman has been reunited with her family . The landlord expressed relief that she could help. “I’m very happy to be able to help this young girl get back to her family,” Sun said .

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Sources: NBC News, The National Desk, New York Post, Boston Herald, CNN