Police release video after woman fought to escape kidnapper in Gig Harbor

GIG HARBOR, Wash. — For the first time, we’re seeing what police saw after a woman fights to escape her kidnapper.

It happened on November 18 in Gig Harbor. The woman ran barefoot and bloodied, about a quarter mile, to a nearby home for help.

In footage from police, you can see the family who helped her and the first responders trying to connect the dots to understand how she ended up on their doorstep with open, deep cuts. She was in such bad shape, she couldn’t even stand on her own.

“Do you know her? Never met her? Never seen her before?” asked one of the Gig Harbor investigators.

They were talking with Robin Marcello, whose husband had just let a woman, begging for help at their doorstep, inside.

“Came out, by the time I got out here, there was nobody here,” said Gary Marcello. “And I walked out to like where you’re at. I looked to my left and there’s a young lady there. Turned around and her face had blood all over it. And it was ‘get in the house.’ We brought her in. My wife took over from there.”

Robin Marcello is seen on the body camera footage saying, “She got out of the house. She ran away.”

When asked which house, Robin said, “She couldn’t tell us a description of the house, just that she walked here from there.”

Police reports say the woman’s head had about four deep cuts that were actively bleeding. Investigators believe she was beaten with a chair leg.

“Can you tell me who did this to you? You don’t know? Was it a family member? Do you live near here? Where do you live?” asked paramedics as they took her to the ambulance.

“We want to go talk to this guy. Can you tell me how to find him? [she points] Which way? That way,” paramedics continued.

Reports say the woman told police she was discharged from a Puyallup hospital two days prior, but didn’t tell them why she was in the hospital. She also couldn’t explain why or how she got to, the alleged kidnapper, 75-year-old David Ruffier’s home.

“You see the blood drops? Those aren’t from us,” said investigators as they pounded on Ruffier’s door.

Police would find Ruffier dead inside the home from self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Those officers also said the home was filled with smoke and a chemical smell. The victim was treated and released from a hospital in November.

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