A woman told police she was tied up and raped three separate times by a man she once planned to marry. The woman also said her three young children were at home during the incident. Justin Michael Gowan, 23, of 110 Edna Drive, Gastonia, was booked into Gaston County Jail Sunday on three charges of first-degree rape, kidnapping, assault by strangulation and assault with a deadly weapon.
His 26-year-old accuser told Gaston County Police she woke up to Gowan restraining her to the bed Saturday at dawn. The two share a home. “I woke up to him tying my hands,” she said. “I was terrified.”
She told police he used a phone cord to bind her wrists and tightened a rope around her neck until she blacked out. The abuse continued throughout the day, she said. Police said the woman had marks around her neck. The woman said she broke free of the restraints at one point to tend to the 11-month-old child she and Gowan share.
She also said she attempted to flee the house with her children when Gowan had fallen asleep on the couch. According to arrest warrants, Gowan woke up and pushed her away from the door before slamming it shut. His accuser told police he then threatened to kill her and her two oldest children. He is the father of her third and youngest child.
At one point he told her, “We are all going to die and be out of pain,” the woman reported to police. She said Gowan used a knife to threaten her and cut her hand when she pushed the knife away, according to a warrant affidavit. “After the third time and he was kind of calmed down, he had ran out of cigarettes and he didn’t want to go out and get them,” she said.
She said she talked Gowan into letting her leave the house to go to a nearby store. Gowan agreed, she said, but not without a warning. “He told me he’d hurt the children if I didn’t come back in a reasonable amount of time,” she said.
The woman drove to a nearby BP gas station, where she called police. When she came home, she told Gowan the rain had caused her to drive slowly and was the reason she was delayed. An hour and a half later, when there were no signs of police, the woman said she began to feel hopeless.
That is, until police knocked on her door and urged Gowan out of the residence. He was arrested without incident, police said. “They told me they were treating it as a hostage situation,” she said. “The whole time they were surrounding the house.”
She’s grateful to the Gaston County Police for their help that day. “They were amazing, and I would probably be dead if it wasn’t for Gaston County Police,” she said. “They did an amazing job and they were great with my children.”
Gowan remained in Gaston County Jail on Monday afternoon with a $250,000 bond. His accuser said she hopes he will stay behind bars.
“If he gets out of jail I’m going to have to take me and my kids to a shelter because I just don’t trust a piece of paper,” she said.
You can reach reporter Lauren Baheri at 704-869-1842 or Twitter.com/lbaheri.