Last Friday, residents of the Sunrise Ranch neighborhood in Montgomery, Texas were rudely awakened at 3:30AM. Someone rang the doorbell, in one case "20 to 30 times," but when they answered the door, no one was there. One resident checked the Ring surveillance footage, and discovered a chilling sight.
In the clip, a woman approached the doorway, appearing to be in great distress. She wore only a T-shirt, and appeared to have broken 'shackles' dangling from one of her wrists. After frantically ringing the doorbell, she glanced around, as if worried someone was following. Then, before the resident could answer the door, she disappeared. Reportedly she did this at five different homes in the area.
Earlier today, the video went viral, and took the internet by storm. People were captivated by the creepy footage and the suspicious circumstances, which drove wild speculation on social media. Montgomery County deputies have investigated the case, and provided a major update.
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office reports that the distressed woman in the surveillance video has been identified as a 32-year-old woman from the Dallas area. Since she is a victim of domestic violence, they will not reveal her identity. However, they say that she is safe and being consoled by her family at this time. She is not considered a missing person, nor is she Caitlyn Denison, the missing teenager from Nevada, as some media outlets speculated.
The woman's boyfriend has been identified as a 49-year-old man, found dead in an apparent suicide. On Wednesday morning at 11am, authorities performed a routine welfare check and discovered his body. Investigators said that he was killed from a single gunshot wound, believed to be self-inflicted, and he left behind a suicide note. Reportedly the woman and the man moved into the house two to three months ago, and it is located in the Sunrise Ranch subdivision.
John Bradley, a resident of Sunrise Ranch, told reporters that during the early hours of the morning when the woman was ringing doorbells, a white van was seen roaming the neighborhood. He said he recognized this same van parked at the deceased man's house. "It's all very suspicious," Bradley told The Daily Mail. "First we had this woman going around at 3.30 in the morning and now this. I've never seen anything like this in all the time I have lived here."
Presumably, the deceased man was chasing the woman on the night of the incident. During a press conference, Lt. Spencer from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department told reporters, "The two were in a boyfriend/girlfriend situation." He also confirmed that the woman was wearing wrist restraints in the video.
Obviously, there are still some questions left unanswered. But for the most part, the mystery of the Texas woman in 'shackles,' ringing random doorbells at 3AM, has been solved. And most importantly, she's safe and sound.
