Bound, beaten, tortured: Students survive 40-hour ordeal

growing up in an upscale suburb of Chicago niccola's coleus was the all-american high school kid what's your family like what was it like growing up one of four boys you know just a really close-knit family very caring parents and for me I'm playing sports and especially football was a huge aspect to my life I always wanted to continue playing football in college you were the first one in your family to go to college right yeah I was the first one out of my direct family to go to college his gridiron goal would become a reality at the University of Rochester you must have been so excited when you got on the football team yeah what were the team dynamics like very small school and private university um only 8,000 undergrad and so the football team was extremely close but Nicholas wasn't all tackles and touchdowns I'm also a classical pianist your credit combos thank you yeah senior year and fall semester at the University of Rochester is in full swing but this Friday night out would be like no other so December 4th what was that day like so it was just kind of like any other day Nicholas and his fellow teammate in fraternity brother Ani Oh Kiki whoo are hanging out when Annie gets messaged on social media and Ani kind of looked over to me and he was like hey I have these two girls who want to hang out so said sure why don't you have the two girls come over to my apartment and we can hang out with them there so Annie took a quick picture of me and sent it to them the girls must have liked what they saw not long after Nicholas and Ani meet them in the parking lot of Nicholas's apartment they didn't want to go in my apartment and they suggested that we go over to their place were there any like red flags for you this time I talking to them did anything seem like no strange about him they were in a nice car nothing seemed unusual abnormal the students jump in the girls car and off they go but soon the changing scenery catches Nicholas's attention I started to notice that the neighborhood was not so good anymore than before I knew him blues showed up at the house the address 22 Harbor Street it was dark out and from the outside it seemed like a decent house a decent house and pretty girls the night ahead was looking good but once inside that all changed the next forty hours had to be the most terrifying horrific of your entire life I remember physically feeling sick reading about what happened yeah I sat down on this couch in the living room and next thing I knew is just the lights went out and about five to ten men and just masks come out - screaming so many loud noises and just are all armed with bats and bars and knives guns and the first thing that just pops in I mean by your flight I got up as fast as I could and tried running to the side door I only made it about halfway across the room before I felt something like being pressed up to the side of my upper leg and then the next thing I remember is just being on the ground Nicholas had been shot in the leg my leg was like gel it was just flopping around and somehow I managed to get back to my feet and get to the door he may have made it there but he wasn't home free and I remember looking out the door and seeing these two other girls that were standing on the outside and they were holding the door closed from the outside just making sure we kind of scaled so the two girls that like said come hang out with us they were the ones holding the door shut or is two different two different girls what it seemed like an innocent college date night was suddenly looking like a vicious setup but why now injured and delirious was nothing I could do and then I just remembered getting hit over the head with a bat and I'm laying on the ground these men are just screaming just don't fight us just take it and don't try and escape it's Friday night the University of Rochester football players Nicholas coleus and Annie Okeke whoo are excited to hang out with a couple of girls they met on Facebook the women take the students to 22 harvest Street but it won't be the kind of hookup the boys are expecting it's a setup I was just like freaking out and I didn't know what was going on multiple men wearing masks jump out and attack the students Nicholas is shot in the leg and hit over the head with a bat how did you not pass out from the paint I don't know it's only the beginning of a 40-hour nightmare they tied up her hands and legs and dragged on and I into this bathroom Nicolas is beaten with a hedge trimmer a bat a pipe then hit over the head again this time with the fluorescent bulb I just remember like touching my head and having all this blood just coming down everywhere as they we're having so much enjoyment with and that they started recording with a warning the video you're about to see is graphic but one of the kidnappers records two of the others are seen threatening Ani with a hedge trimmer and then prodding Nicolas lying on the floor covered in blood after hours of torture the masked men leave both students but especially Nicholas are in bad shape and it's not over the monsters return early the next morning for more they were extremely organized they had nicknames they had roles for individuals they take our wall and everything from me my keys my phone my wallet the campers put on e in the bedroom they keep Nicolas in the bathroom they pulled me into the shower where they started washing me entire toddlers just ride turns out Nicholas hadn't been shot once he'd been shot twice I was shot in my other leg as well did you feel I mean they're washing you like were they gonna let you go honestly yeah while they were bathing me they had other individuals who were cleaning the house and reaching everything down so it was almost as if they were like trying to cover their tracks the plan is to not let them go how did you keep going I don't know I thought about my parents and how much I mean to them and how much they mean to me and I didn't want this to be the end and that's what it was for me as well the fact that my parents would always love me and for me that was worth surviving for so that's how I was able to make the decision that I would do whatever it took to survive it didn't matter what it was now when the bedroom was on II survived is what Nicholas is desperately trying to do that's when these individuals were holding me at gunpoint and they were making me call all these different financial institutions to get my withdrawal limits increased and doing whatever they could to get money out of my accounts there's all this really just about money well the football players are negotiating for their lives their absence is not going unnoticed friends and family contact the University of Rochester Public Safety Department which alerts Rochester PD as we started to put all this whole story together we realized something really was not right first of all there phones where both phones were turned off the second thing was these both gentlemen were prolific on social media always updating what they were doing where they were and that had stopped cold Friday night also the fact that they were had been out of contact with everybody else Rochester Police launched a full investigation getting search warrants for the boys phones in facebook accounts trying to track down the two women that they met up there find the girls and maybe find the boys well cops are quickly working to identify who these two women are nicholas and ani are coming to grips with the reality that there's no way out they're trapped were you and Ani ever left alone or was there always someone there watching you there was always someone at least one or two individuals they were kind of watching over us and so during that time you guys didn't have a chance to be like what are we gonna do how are we gonna get away or anything like that yeah not really I mean obviously he was in better shape than I was he wasn't shot did he seem scared yeah I mean he was scared but throughout the whole ordeal he kind of had this like optimistic view they're gonna release us but it was hard for me to kind of see that light they don't only got worse as time went on so much worse I want to ask you a question and if you don't want to answer it that's okay because it is so terrifying coming forward and because there are so many prejudices stereotypes misunderstandings around this whole topic and especially for men but were you ever sexually abused while you were held captive yeah during the events that took place at one point these these individuals forced me to kind of do things and it was just terrible and yeah it happened and it's it's the worst feeling that the University of Rochester Public Safety officers in ma Chester PD now know the clock is ticking they soon catch a break they track down the girl who message on it her name is Samantha huge she was less than helpful she was trying to give us the runner on it she had to go to work so she said can I meet up with you tomorrow and we can finish this at that point she really wasn't free to leave then they find the second girl Lia Julie otic neither are making it easy for investigators it was exhausting so they give us a little bit of a lead we'd be able to follow up on that we wind up in the dead end if we'd have to come back and get more information then a chilling admission they said don't worry they're not gonna be hurt and a normal person that you meet up with it's not gonna tell that to the police so we knew that it wasn't the ones who lured the football players into the sadistic trap give up even more after about six hours we're able to get a couple of good locations where these euros last saw Nico and I mean are they getting closer to finding the boys undercover officers monitor the two locations then Rochester Deputy Police Chief Scott Peters puts together a plan with a SWAT commander this is gonna be a hostage rescue I said here's the two locations plan cold hits on both houses you're gonna do one and then we're gonna have to do the second one if the first house wasn't right getting it right the first time could be the difference between life and death it's now Sunday morning at 22 Harbor Street more than 30 hours in while you are being held captive was there ever a moment that you felt like you were gonna give up yeah things have reached a fevered pitch they came into the room with their masks on and guns and weapons and they started saying that I was lying to them and my cards weren't working anymore and that they said that they were gonna kill us Nikolas says the kidnappers turn on some loud music to cover the sounds of what's to come they were just spraying bullets everywhere and they were putting the gun down her throat and putting the gun to our body and just moving it at the last seconds and I was holding on his hand and I just knew that like one of these bullets were gonna hit me I was gonna die it's now Sunday night 9:00 p.m. almost 40 hours into this kidnapping nightmare my body was in such bad shape and you know I was just kind of feeling worse and just not optimistic at all that we would be found what Nicholas kuya's doesn't know is that the Calvary is on the way remember Hughes and Giuliani the girls who lured the football players to that house of horrors they eventually gave police two addresses a SWAT team is now ready to hit the first 22 harvest Street not even knowing if it's the right house they roll up it was eerily silent then out of the darkness appears a figure someone from inside comes out and sees the swarm of a heavily armed SWAT team very quickly and he ran back inside and shut the door the individual who was nicknamed the caretaker came into the room and and this was the only time I actually saw any of the individuals faces without a mask on he was like trying to untie us real fast outside the SWAT team sets the explosive charges on to door they call breach then both explosive charges go off the house just lit up the door gets blown inside I didn't know what was going on as the doorway opens up one person of the laughs another person will go right upon entry the SWAT team sees two individuals there was the two suspects inside the living room took them in custody cops still aren't sure they're in the hostage house they make their way through the kitchen then they see a closed door as they go through the door they look in there and sure enough there's the the two football players are sitting on the floor there was remnants of taper on their ankles and hands and they just looked like they'd been through hell I thought the house was being burned down in reality they were saving my life we rolled the dice on the first house we hit was the correct one this is a once-in-a-career rescue do you remember when they came into the room at first I was kind of scared because there was more individuals just covered in body armor and these huge guns and I was just tearing I'd be pretty scared too yeah so I pulled my hands up and I'm like I'm I'm innocent like please don't shoot me again they got us out of the house got me into an ambulance and off to the hospital after more than 40 hours of sheer hell Nicholas and Ani are reunited with their families I just remember seeing both my parents and more specifically my father he just came over to me and the stretcher and stuff and he was like you know you're safe now and and you're gonna be all right Nicholas spent the next 25 days in intensive care as the investigation begins cops find a stomach-churning video on one of the violent kidnappers cell phones again a warning which are about to see is deeply disturbing on Eli's bleeding on the floor as the attacker prods and threatens him with an electric hedge trimmer the camera swings right to reveal Nicholas curled up in pain as the kidnappers and his injured leg cops believe the students were rescued in the nick of time the plan really was to basically drain all the bank accounts Nikko had pretty good sum of money what the bad guys didn't know is you can't access those funds on the weekend so they were waiting until 8 o'clock in the morning when they could actually access those accounts and I'm sure once they did that they probably would have killed them a month later all the perpetrators are in custody an unbelievable nine in total five men and four women I kind of always thought of women is like harmless individuals that could hurt a fly I know exactly what you mean when I was kidnapped the night I was kidnapped I was terrified I remember when I heard the woman's voice turn ever I'm thinking it's gonna be okay it's gonna be all right there's a woman there like nothing that bad can happen sometimes I wondered maybe she was worse than he was Monroe County District Attorney Sandra duralee says the case was like no other and deserved special attention I knew that it was going to be high-profile and it affected a lot of people in this community personally so I really wanted to make sure that my best people were on it this case is a lot of things it's tragic sad but what it certainly is is is just disgusting of the nefarious nine five end up taking plea deals including Samantha Hughes and Lea Giuliani the women who lured Nicholas and Ani to the house that night the five received sentences of 13 to 35 years in prison the other four take their chances at trial the evidence was overwhelming miss Christine and I got ready for this trial it was harder to figure out what we weren't going to use than it was to figure out what we were going to use there was just that much but there was one key piece of evidence the jurors would see the cell phone video was was clearly in my opinion the most essential piece of evidence and perhaps yes the also the most damning as well essentially showed 30 seconds of torture and when you put that in perspective that was only 30 seconds out of almost 40 hours so he can only imagine what they went through during the other 39 hours and change on Ian Nicholas who both testify against their kidnappers watch that grotesque video in court it was terrible to take me back to that time and it was just so sickening and heartbreaking the ringleader Lydell Strickland played a starring role in that video Mitel Strickland was enjoying what was going on he's also seen in other damning videos cops find around town they were just multiple banks all over the city of Rochester that Slidell Strickland was seen using Nicholas's TD Ameritrade card it's clearly his face of one video he actually pulls up still wearing a mask that he was wearing during the other cellphone video after a month-long trial all four defendants are found guilty on all counts three of the defendants are sentence 7 to 15 years Lydell Strickland gets a hundred and fifty-five years to life I feel like for each of these defendants and for these victims that justice was served Nicholas has filed the 10 million dollar lawsuit against the nine kidnappers but what was the monster's motive for perpetrating this horrific crime it was not just about money but revenge and in a shocking twist it turns out the kidnappers got the wrong guys it was definitely a case of mistaken identity mistaken identity that's why cops say the target was a completely different University of Rochester football player Isiah Smith Smith a star athlete and well-known drug dealer found a spare key to Annie and his twin brother's apartment cops say Isiah Smith then used that apartment to rob Ladell Strickland in his gang of thugs Strickland company then wanted revenge so they told the girls to go get the football players who ripped them on the drug dealers when they came back we're looking for the people who lived in that apartment not realizing that they were it was just being used by somebody else so it was it was definitely a case of mistaken identity it's appalling yeah I mean it's unbelievable and it's acceptable yeah but Nicholas says there's more to the story and is holding the University of Rochester responsible he says after Isiah Smith was arrested football coaches bailed Smith out of jail then failed to inform the student body of the severity of the crime all in an attempt to give their star athlete preferential treatment the university it was just completely negligent and what they did my life was put in jeopardy and numerous occasions all because of you know Isaiah getting bailed out and poor decision-making on many university officials Nicholas plans to file a civil suit against the University of Rochester we contacted the University of Rochester and it responded in part we disagree with mr. coleus is assertion but we continue to wish him the best as he moves forward after this traumatic experience sadly Nicholas and Annie are no longer friends he says during their 40 hour ordeal he received more of the abuse than Donnie did and he thinks she knows why I just feel like with everything that happened I feel like he he had more to do with it than he will ever admit I was the one that got majority of all the beating and abuse and so you know it's just not not a good experience to have someone who you thought you could trust and just kind of being the complete opposite too we reached out to on e for comment but he never responded there was no evidence presented at trial that Annie was in any way involved in planning or carrying out the kidnapping on EO Kiki who has never been considered anything other than a victim Nicholas is now trying to move on with his life he says although the nightmare he survived will never leave him he's working hard to not let it define him people who survive very violent crimes yes it's it's a miracle it's miraculous that we're here but I don't think people realize that sometimes surviving is harder no I I couldn't agree more I mean it's not easy you know for me I have always said then I don't want this to hold me back I don't want this to you know label me I'm not gonna let these individuals mess up the rest of my life and so that's why I'm trying to be optimistic and just positive and move forward in the best way that I can

Channel: True Crime Daily

Views: 2,903,676

Rating: 4.9179316 out of 5

Keywords: Crime Watch Daily, True Crime Daily, Nicholas Kollias, University of Rochester, Ani Okeke Ewo, Rochester Police, University of Rochester Public Safety, Samantha Hughes, Leah Gigliotti, 22 Harvest Street, Monroe County, Lydell Strickland, Isaiah Smith

Id: 9_vzkP79Km0

Length: 24min 18sec (1458 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 07 2020