A maintenance worker discovered a woman chained to a bed inside a North Dakota apartment, where she claims to have been held captive for two years.
Officers responded to a Fargo apartment building on November 3 after a maintenance employee “entered an apartment unit for routine service and discovered an adult woman in a bedroom who appeared to be held against her will for an extended period of time,” the Fargo Police Department said in a Thursday, November 5, news release.
Two people were arrested in connection with the discovery and face kidnapping charges, court records show.
An initial investigation led to the arrests of Arturo Calzada-Becerril, of Fargo, North Dakota, and Erendira Amoles, of Moorhead, North Dakota, on charges of felonious restraint involving an adult victim, according to police.
The woman identified Calzada-Becerril, 40, as her ex-husband while speaking with police, according to court documents obtained by Valley News Live. She alleged he brought her to Fargo from Mexico in 2024 and has kept her restrained inside his apartment for two years.
In an interview with police, the maintenance worker said that when he found the woman chained to the bed on November 3, he noticed a security camera facing toward her inside the bedroom, where tin foil was covering the windows, the court filings state. The worker also said she didn’t speak English.
A responding officer wrote in the court documents viewed by Valley News Live that they “observed [the woman] in a bedroom with a chain and padlock secured around her right ankle with the other end of the chain secured to the bed.”
She said Calzada-Becerril “brings her food twice a day but does not let her outside to use the bathroom, so she uses a bucket that’s in the bedroom to go to the bathroom,” the court documents state.
The woman accused Calzada-Becerril and Amoles, 41, of beating and sexually assaulting her, Valley News Live reported.
After officers rescued the woman, who was transferred to a hospital, Amoles reportedly arrived at the apartment with her 8-year-old child.
While speaking with police, Calzada-Becerril said that he, Amoles and the woman previously lived in Mexico, per Valley News Live. He also allegedly said he kept the woman chained in the apartment to prevent her from running away.
According to police, Amoles said that she would regularly restrain the woman, who she and Calzada-Bercerril claim allegedly assaulted them and charged at them with a knife.
Amoles allegedly admitted to chaining the woman so she wouldn’t flee on November 3, before she had to pick her child up from school, the news outlet reported.
Calzada-Bercerril and Amoles are both charged with kidnapping/terrorizing an adult victim, court records viewed by Us show. They didn’t enter a plea to those charges.
Calzada-Bercerril is also charged with domestic violence causing bodily injury, which he pleaded not guilty to, according to court records. Amoles pleaded not guilty to a simple assault charge filed in her case.
During their initial court appearance on Friday, November 6, their bonds were set at $500,000, Valley News Live reported.
Prosecutors accused Calzada-Bercerril and Amoles of holding the woman captive in Fargo in connection with their immigration status, noting the woman is a U.S. citizen, per the outlet. They could both potentially be deported, prosecutors said.
Public defenders separately representing Calzada-Bercerril and Amoles didn’t immediately return requests for comment from Us on Tuesday, November 10.
