California woman shares story of surviving abduction by cop

springtime about seven years ago Aaron Orkut was loving her life as a new mom you enjoyed being a young mother yeah it's a lot of fun it's a great privilege to be able to be a mother when she wasn't busy with her son she was busy working Aaron was a cocktail waitress at a restaurant in Ontario California at the time I would spend my weeks with with my son and on the weekends I would be at work pretty much from Thursday night to Sunday afternoon but one Saturday in April business was slow Aaron suddenly had an afternoon to herself when she left work early you get off in the mail of the day you're excited about having the rest of your evening you're not thinking that things are gonna happen to you but something really bad was about to happen when I got to my car I had a habit of clicking my unlock button twice because it unlocks all the doors just as Aaron opened her door she heard her at first she thought it was just a co-worker pulling a prank when did you start realizing that this is serious but when I saw the gun this was no joke the stranger had a gun pointed directly at Aaron she knew hollering for help wouldn't do any good it's very rare for the parking lot to be empty unfortunately for me it was empty and if someone did pass they likely would not see the gun Hey look very low to his waist and he had a friend behind him who was kind of walking from the aisle direction he had an accomplice Aaron worried if she tried to make a run for it he'd shoot instead she followed his commands I got in the car he cut in the passenger seat and told me to drive the accomplice stayed behind and now Aaron and her abductor were alone leaving the mall parking lot on a ride to hell he didn't tell me where to drive and since I grew up in the air I knew of a few places where cops tended hang out so I figured I would try to steer that direction I contemplated driving my car off the road or ramming into somebody else or just putting it in park and running aaron was also begging the strange man to let her go I pleaded with him just him you can take my car I'm not worried about it I won't call the cops just take my car and and let me out when he told her to pull over aaron drove into a restaurant lot where she'd always seen cops hanging out hopefully somebody's fair and maybe that'll scare him the fact that there's a cop right there unfortunately for me there was no cop there the gunman ordered her to drive around to the back of the building but she couldn't there was a storage unit it attached to it he couldn't get back there without a code he was very upset he kept going drive around at the back and I said there is no back surveillance video obtained exclusively by crime watch Daily Show's Erin and her abductor pulling into the parking lot I'm parked facing a window into a storage facility and there's a you know not a there was a gas station down the street and there's a Denny's behind me there's a liquor store right there I thought there's no way there's no way anything is gonna happen but Erin was wrong as soon as she parked the gunman forced her at gunpoint into the backseat I started crying he got in the backseat with me and kind of sat where my car seat was he was sitting on top of your baby seat mm-hmm Erin says he then ordered her to take off her clothes she desperately pleaded with him to let her go he made it clear that wasn't going to happen this nightmare was far from over he ended up putting the gun to my head and told me to stop crying he actually wrapped the gun and a bullet popped out and landed in the seat I knew the gun was fully loaded you knew he meant business up next a daring escape I booked it out running crying and screaming the breathless moment caught on tape and what the rapist leads behind leads cops speechless what did you think when you saw that I was shocked Aaron Orkut was all smiles as she left her waitressing job one Saturday afternoon in April early we were incredibly dead but moments later the single moms carefree spirit would be filled with tears he had a gun pointed at me he told me to get in the car Aaron was forced to drive while the strange gunman sexually assaulted her before long she parked in what she thought would be a safe spot there's a lot of foot traffic that goes on in that area despite the businesses all around the dark tinted windows made it impossible for anyone to see what was now happening in the back of her SUV he told me to get undressed and I was crying shaking uncontrollably Aaron's tears quickly dry up when her abductor sticks the gun in her mouth aggressively demanding she shut up what did you do then he had me he said on top of his lap and he tried tried to penetrate me but he he couldn't do it but Aaron says that didn't matter the abuse continued he had me but he was taking pictures the entire time and I looked up and he smiled and he snapped again and then he told me to smile pretty and took a picture of me without my clothes on not only was he taking pictures the violent rapist started texting the lewd photos to the accomplice he left back at the mall parking lot the two men were soon talking on the phone his friend was like where are you he goes oh you don't see me I'm right here and was playing around he was left being on his phone I couldn't leave it the laughter didn't last Aaron says in an instant rage took over he just stare at me just dead eyes and just hit me socked me in the face a few times he had me get on my stomach and he tried to rape me from behind he really couldn't after about an hour the gunman told Aaron to get dressed their road trip was about to take an even darker turn he had mentioned that we were going to go to the desert and finish this I knew it if I didn't get out right then in there I there's no way I would have made it out though wracked with fear she discreetly noticed his gun had fallen to the floor and was now under the passenger seat she thought about the child lock on her back door I had child locks on the side of the car that he was on and the side that I was on was behind the driver's side door there was no child looks just then her attackers phone rang again and this time when he answered Aaron's survivor instinct kicked in to full throttle it was now or never I threw the door open and I ran like the hounds of hell were we're on the heels Crimewatch Daly has obtained this exclusive surveillance video showing Aaron's desperate sprint to safety what you can't hear were her piercing screams for help the entire time he has gun he has a gun everybody get back inside Aaron had no idea about the the nearby liquor store had been keeping a suspicious eye on her SUV he knew there were two people inside he was about to call police she grabbed me inside and he threw me behind the register so I just at that point I lost it detective robert marquez with the Ontario Police Department was one of the first on scene he says if Erin hadn't run when she did she wouldn't be telling her story I don't think he was going to let her go he had done too many things in front of too many cameras and his plan was to take her somewhere and and harm her you feel that her attacker planned to kill her yes once Erin made her dangerous escape the gunman tried to make his own he had grabbed my keys and tried to start my car but I had a kill switch so he couldn't have started the car unless he knew where the sensor was when he couldn't drive away he took off on foot quickly getting lost in all the traffic his getaway wouldn't last long Erika's attacker made one critical mistake he left his gun inside the car and that's not all taped on the bottom of the magazine was his name my stomach dropped kidnapped at gunpoint while leaving work Aaron Orkut was beaten and raped inside her SUV the horrifying assault went on for more than an hour before she finally broke free and fled for her life I think he was surprised that she escaped and then he went into a panic type mode but in his own rush to get away the attacker left behind plenty of evidence we were able to locate his gun her clothing biological fluids and his sunglasses and right there taped on the bottom of the guns magazine was their biggest clue the suspects name but strangely it was a labeling technique Detective Robert Marquez knew very well normally police officers they will put their name on the bottom of the magazine in case they have to let somebody else use their magazine and a gunfight what did you think when you saw that I was shocked and his shock was about to turn to outrage as cops were investigating Aaron's abduction and officer Anthony Orban from the nearby city of Westminster was reporting his gun missing or stolen in the Ontario area they kind of put two and two together and they decided hey this is related but related how detectives knew either the sick man who kidnapped and raped Aaron had used a cop's gun or the demented attacker was a cop himself officer Orban was tracked down to a nearby parking lot where he was helping a friend a fellow officer find his truck yes Jeffrey jellinek was a correctional officer for the state of California orbán and jellinek matched the descriptions Aaron had given up her attacker and his accomplice they even had her keys Aaron was soon brought over to ID them both there was I don't know maybe ten ten cop cars but the court just lighting him up I've never seen anything like that before they pulled right out and let me ID a man as soon as I did they took me back to that to the hospital how did that sit with you when you learned that your attacker was a police officer my initial thought was oh my gosh but nobody's ever gonna seek justice for this because he's one of them I was very fortunate to be wrong officers orbán and Joe MEC were immediately taken into custody suddenly both claimed they couldn't remember a thing in this exclusive video obtained by crime watch daily officer Orban claims he drank too many margaritas at lunch causing him to blackout a long time but what he did admit to detectives corroborated what Aaron tearfully revealed i've been almost depressed birth and the presence and it kills you after a short time behind bars officer Jill neck apparently regained some of his memory he told us at the very end of his interrogation you might want to look at the photos and I said what photos and he said the photos on my phone what on his phone all the pictures Anthony Orban snapped while forcing Erin to perform sex acts on him I couldn't believe what I was seeing just thought this poor girl he sent those photos to jellinek why I think they were playing some type of sick game and tried to outdo each other even though his friend cave Anthony was sticking to his script what detectives say even when they weren't in the room officer Orban kept up the charade because he knows the cameras there he's an investigator himself he's a police officer he was a scientist sex investigations wait he's a sex crimes officer yes what type of irony is this Howard are you in disbelief absolutely and in yet another shocking twist the same antidepressant that Officer Orban blamed for his impotence problem he also blamed for the assault on Aaron he claimed that he had taken zoloft and while he was drinking alcohol so he said the zoloft made him do it that's correct officer orden pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity claiming the zoloft left him unconscious during the attack I was pissed so pissed so many people are on Zoloft and they're not gonna go off and rape somebody and kidnap them at gunpoint it was an excuse it was excuse after excuse after excuse and it was all about him being the victim but there was an actual victim Aaron or cut though the terror from a rape at gunpoint was over and her attacker behind bars she was now facing a second frightening ordeal he was making phone calls that were being recorded from the jail making statements like it would be a lot easier if the witness wasn't around and I was getting weird phone calls and I did get followed on the freeway and we didn't know if it was related or not but I was terrified the district attorney's office was so worried about possible retaliation had to remain in seclusion during the trial they did everything in their power aside from witness protection and chose to make sure that I was safe she was only allowed to attend Orban's trial the day she testified and the day the verdicts were handed down when they found him guilty on all counts and fain I broke I just I broke down because at that point I'm thinking oh my gosh there's an end to this now jurors rejected his insanity defense finding Anthony Orban guilty of kidnapping rape and multiple counts of sexual assault eight felony counts in all his accomplice Jeff jellinek had testified against him in court agreeing to plead no contest in exchange for a lighter sentence jellinek was eventually sentenced to five years after he was released he went back to live with his mom and dad back east two-and-a-half years after she was kidnapped and raped Erin was going to confront her attacker in court on sentencing day brave erin was more than ready I got a phone call and they told me you may not have to even come down today they found him dead in his cell Anthony orbán committed suicide by hanging himself I needed that closure and I was just in tears they had been right there willing to forgive him and once that happened I was finding it very hard to cling to that forgiveness in a highly unusual and unprecedented move the judge still allowed Aaron to read her victim impact statement while Anthony's family respectfully remained in court and listened no amount of reasoning can justify the horrors that I was forced to endure that day and those who tried should be ashamed of themselves I am disappointed that a person in your position would have behaved in such a way and that you tried to get away with it instead of owning up to your actions like a real man but then a real man would never have kidnapped raped beaten and terrorized a woman I choose to live my life and take back any power that your actions may have had over me to do so I have to do something that I have struggled with and never thought I would be able to do I forgive you so in your heart you found room to forgive him you can't move on without doing so Aaron has moved on but it hasn't been easy diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder Aaron has suffered from panic attacks and depression and yet this strong survivor refuses to break it was either okay get back up and figure your life out or you're gonna clean to it as a crutch and be that person that's just a victim forever and I wasn't about to be a victim if he had not taken his own life Anthony Orban would have spent the rest of it behind bars the judge in the case revealed she was planning to sentence him to 82 years to life in prison followed by a 95 year sentence

Channel: True Crime Daily

Views: 7,631,325

Keywords: Erinn Orcutt, Crime Watch Daily, True Crime Daily, Officer Anthony Orban, Jeffrey Jelinek

Id: WJ_5PpzY_Tc

Length: 19min 1sec (1141 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 21 2019