Tim Evans and Michael Auslen

USA TODAY

INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana woman who went missing in July was caged, tied up and endured repeated sexual assaults and beatings in the mobile home of two acquaintances before another man visiting the couple rescued her Saturday, according to charging documents filed Monday in Posey Circuit Court.

Prosecutors Monday charged Ricky R. House Jr., 37, and Kendra Tooley, 44, with more than 10 criminal counts each in the case involving the Evansville, Ind., woman who went missing July 9.

The woman was rescued after Tooley's ex-husband, Ronald Higgs, visited the mobile home last week and learned the 30-year-old woman was being held against her will. The 61-year-old Higgs said he was dumbfounded when Tooley told him, "I've got a girl back here in a cage."

Court documents say the woman was an acquaintance of House and Tooley and accepted a ride from House as she was walking along an Evansville street the night of July 9. She agreed to go to the couple's trailer in the small community of Stewartsville, Ind., but when she tried to leave, "Ricky placed chloroform over her mouth and nose causing her to lose consciousness," according to court records.

"(The woman) awoke to find her clothing cut off and she was bound to a bed within the trailer."

Stewartsville is about 25 miles northwest of Evansville.

House was formally charged Monday with four counts of rape, one count of conspiracy to commit rape, five counts of criminal confinement, two counts of kidnapping, one count of battery resulting in bodily injury and one count of pointing a firearm.

Tooley was charged with two counts of rape, one count of conspiracy to commit rape, four counts of criminal confinement, two counts of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy to commit criminal confinement.

Over the course of the next 59 days, court documents reveal, the woman was bound to the bed and various other places in the trailer, kept in a wooden cage and forced to have sex with both House and Tooley. She also was beaten with a belt.

USA TODAY does not name victims of sexual assault.

While being interrogated after her arrest, Tooley denied having sex with the woman but said House "was attempting to impregnate (the woman) because (Tooley) was old and unable to have children of her own," court documents said.

Higgs showed up at the couple's trailer Friday to help House with a vehicle. That's when he learned the woman was being held against her will.

Court records said the woman was unsure whether she could trust Higgs, but felt he was her best chance to escape. Higgs told the woman he would return the next day to get her — and he kept his word.

When Higgs returned Saturday, he told House "that he was taking (the woman) away from there," according to court documents.

"Ronald and Ricky then got into a heated discussion. Ricky then placed a sawed off shotgun to Ronald's chin and threatened to kill him," an affidavit from a police officer said. "Ronald told (House) that he would have to shoot him because he was taking (the woman) away."

After a struggle, Higgs was able to get the woman — who had been secured by a rope attached to a dog collar around her neck — and flee the mobile home.

When the pair got back to Higgs' home, they called police.

House and Tooley were arrested Sunday on preliminary charges of criminal confinement and rape.

Evansville police Sgt. Jason Cullum said relatives reported the mother of two missing on July 13. He said police had searched for her based on tips about her whereabouts, and the woman's relatives conducted their own searches.

The woman is one of two young Evansville area women who went missing this summer and there was speculation the cases could be connected. But Posey County Sheriff Gregory Oeth said Sunday there appears to be no connection between the abduction and confinement of the woman found Saturday and the disappearance of Kristy Kelley, 27, who was last seen at the VFW in Boonville at about 1:30 a.m. Aug. 15.

The sheriff said the investigation into the confined woman's abduction revealed no evidence that House and Tooley had any connection to the disappearance of Kelley.

A post Sunday on the Facebook page of Kelley's father said, "Feeling reenergized with them finding (the Evansville woman) alive. Now to bring Kristy home for" her two children.

The case of the caged woman is reminiscent of the situation uncovered last year in Cleveland, where three women missing for nearly a decade were discovered alive in the home of Ariel Castro. The former school bus driver, who pleaded guilty to holding the women captive and was sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping and rape, committed suicide in custody in September 2013.

Finding a missing person gives hope to other families who have loved ones missing, said Patti Carter Bishop, founder of IN Hope Indiana Missing.

Bishop said there are about 30 adults missing from Indiana currently. Some are well-known, such as Indiana University student Lauren Spierer, but others are known only to their families, friends and law enforcement.

Families of the missing struggle daily with an emotional tug-of-war between hope and fear, Bishop said.

"The fear is always there," she said. "The hope can leave and then something like this happens and gives us an extra jolt of hope."

While missing persons are occasionally found alive, sometimes years or decades after they disappear, Bishop said, "it is not as common as we would hope it would be, as we would like it to be."

Still, she said, cases like the one in Evansville, "show that it can happen."

An Evansville hospital declared her in good physical health Sunday, Oeth said. He added she is probably malnourished and there will certainly be mental and emotional turmoil.

A message posted Saturday night on a Facebook site dedicated to her disappearance thanked those who had searched for the missing woman or offered support to her family. They also asked for privacy for the family.

Evans and Auslen also report for The Indianapolis Star. Contributing: The Associated Press.