A long time in the past, a Black lady with a seemingly good life, husband and kids had her total world flipped the wrong way up by one harmful man. It took years for her to flee his captivity. Now, she’s able to spill the grisly particulars of what occurred to her.
Lifetime’s upcoming film “Woman within the Storage: The Laura Cowan Story” is predicated on the actual occasions that occurred to Miss Laura Cowan. She tells PEOPLE that her story started after she moved to Santa Monica, Calif. from Cleveland, Oh. in 1985. She had gotten married to a preacher, had two youngsters and opened just a few companies, together with a bookstore and restaurant.
Nonetheless, she stated sooner or later, the police got here to arrest her husband for trafficking unlawful firearms and was despatched to federal jail.
Assembly Mansa Musa Muhummed
Identical to that, Cowan’s funds had been depleted and he or she was all of a sudden a single mom, struggling to maintain her head above water, she advised PEOPLE. Although, what she perceived to be an angel stepped in her nook for help: Mansa Musa Muhummed.
He was a married man and father to 13 youngsters. Based on courtroom paperwork, when the 2 met, they agreed to all transfer in collectively. Little did Cowan know, Muhummed had a historical past of abusing his spouse and kids. Courtroom paperwork say he was bodily abusive and likewise resorted to merciless punishments corresponding to ravenous them for days and even forcing the kids to face awake in a nook for hours.
“He was so offended on a regular basis. It was like strolling on eggshells round there. It’s important to watch out about what you say and also you don’t need to tick him off,” she advised PEOPLE. “He would beat his youngsters for the littlest issues. He would beat them for not getting up within the morning for prayer. He would go into their room with a bucket of water and pour it on them.”
Cowan Feels Muhummed’s Wrath
Cowan stated at first, the household appeared quiet and “well-behaved,” by way of PEOPLE. Nonetheless, slowly, Muhummed’s controlling nature started exhibiting itself. Courtroom paperwork say he turned controlling over her funds and wouldn’t enable her to work or go to highschool, promising to make her his second spouse.
Issues escalated when the 2 obtained right into a dispute over his violent self-discipline of Cowan’s son. Paperwork say he then turned the violence on Cowan, having choked her, kicked her with steel-toed boots, beat her bloody and even stabbed her within the foot.
Might you imagine it obtained even worse? After Muhummed “married” a 3rd lady, he moved all of them into one other residence in Aguanga, Calif. Paperwork say he cut up the house’s three-car storage into two areas the place he compelled Cowan and his third spouse to stick with their youngsters with no bathroom and boarded up home windows.
That’s the place Cowan stated she was remoted, being raped and infrequently refused meals by Muhummed, per PEOPLE. The ladies and their youngsters had been hardly ever allowed to depart the storage, not to mention make phone calls with out surveillance.
Laura Cowan Lastly Rescued
It wasn’t till after 4 years of captivity she managed to ship a sign to a neighbor, scribbling the phrase “assist” on a bit of paper and tossing it over the yard’s fence. That resulted in a ineffective go to from a social employee who didn’t discover something suspicious, PEOPLE’s report says. Cowan’s subsequent try at discovering assist was round April of 1999, when Muhummed introduced Cowan to the put up workplace to select up her meals stamps, paperwork say.
When Muhummed was preoccupied speaking to a different buyer, she took slim window of alternative to succeed in below her gown and move a 12-page handwritten letter detailing the torture she’d endured to a postal employee.
“I by no means talked to her. We solely made eye contact. And as I used to be going to the door, I appeared again at her and all she did was nod.”
The Aftermath
Days laters, deputies with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Workplace got here to the house to their rescue. PEOPLE’s report stated she was reunited together with her husband upon his launch from jail in addition to her two youngsters. Her husband sadly died of a coronary heart assault quickly after their reunion, main her to maneuver herself and her youngsters again to Cleveland, the report says.
As for Muhummed, he was convicted on a number of expenses of torture, baby abuse, false imprisonment and infliction of corporal damage on a partner.
Now, after years of freedom, she’s emboldened herself to share the story of what occurred to her in movie kind. Lifetime’s manufacturing “Woman within the Storage: The Laura Cowan Story” will premiere Saturday, Jan. 18 at 8/7c.