A Texas man who goes by the rap name Viper was arrested after authorities and charged with aggravated kidnapping for allegedly confining, raping, torturing, and keeping a woman in his house over four years.
According to the police report and court documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle, the suspect named Lee Carter, picked up a homeless woman who was panhandling on Houston’s southeast side. Carter reportedly pulled up and asked her if she needed help, and then offered to give her a dollar. The police report stated that he told her to get into the car and took her back to his home — and then refused to let her go for “four or five years.”
From there, a laundry list of horrors was allegedly perpetrated by Carter against the unidentified woman.
The victim explained to HPD officers that Carter allegedly kept her locked in his garage and mostly refused to allow her to bathe or use a regular toilet for years. When the woman smelled too bad, he would occasionally allow her to take a shower but would immediately return her to the garage where she subsisted on only snacks.
She alleges that he forced her to take drugs such as crack and other illegal narcotics and raped her repeatedly over the four-year confinement. The report also stated that Carter got the woman pregnant.
One time, the woman was able to escape and was taken to the hospital by the police but then returned to Carter once she was tended to. Carter responded, the woman alleges, by boarding up the garage and threatening her with violence if she attempted to leave again.
The breakthrough happened one day when Carter reportedly allowed the woman access to his laptop. She used the Text Now app to reach 911 and explained that she was being held against her will.
When officers arrived at the scene and pried the garage open, they found the woman “extremely malnourished” and weighing only 70 pounds. The odor was extremely pungent because she said she hadn’t showered in months. Cops also found a mattress with “fresh vomit” on it, a “makeshift toilet” that did not flush, and “bags of chips and Twinkies,” the only source of food he allowed her. She said she never got a complete nutritious meal during her years in captivity.
HPD officers described her clothes as “filthy dirty,” and her hair as “crusty.”
Carter was arrested on a $100K bond and will be arraigned on Jan. 8, 2023.
The suspect, who goes by the monicker Viper, attained regional notoriety for his independent projects and curiously-named albums, such as 2008’s You’ll Cowards Don’t Even Smoke Crack, according to The Chronicle.
