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Cops Uncover Disturbing Story Behind Woman's Bizarre Doorbell Video

The mysterious video captured the woman in what appears to be wrist restraints ringing doorbells in her neighborhood in the middle of the night.
Drew Schwartz
Brooklyn, US

This week, police in Montgomery County, Texas, have been scrambling to track down a woman who was caught on a home security camera over the weekend frantically ringing a doorbell with what looked like shackles on her wrists. Cops released footage of the bizarre incident to the public in hopes that someone might recognize her, and on Wednesday, they finally identified the woman, announcing that while she's safe, the backstory behind the clip is as dark as it looks.

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According to CNN, the 32-year-old woman was the girlfriend of a suicidal man who cops found dead at their home in the Sunrise Ranch neighborhood on Wednesday from a single gunshot wound. The 49-year-old man is believed to have been abusive and had reportedly left behind a note referencing the woman, though she wasn't at home when the cops arrived. On Wednesday, Lietuenant Scott Spencer of the county police department said the woman was now "safe and with family."

"There's some issues obviously with the video surveillance, of why she was wearing those restraints and the circumstances around it," Spencer said. "We only have one side of the story right now."

The seven-second video of the woman—who reportedly rang several doorbells throughout the neighborhood dozens of times at around 3 AM last Friday—bounced around social media while people wondered who she could be. Some wondered if she was being kept as a "sex slave" and floated pictures of missing people who looked a little like her, and others wondered if she might have escaped from a nearby hospital.

Spencer said the cops have canvassed the neighborhood for info on exactly what folks saw on Friday night, and that the investigation is still ongoing. The police department hasn't released the woman's identity, because she's believed to be a victim of domestic violence, but has asserted that she's not linked to any of the several missing person cases people forwarded to the department over the past week.

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