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Wisconsin man re-enacts "Saw" in his basement. Victims rescued; found alive!
Records: Wis. men were abducted, assaulted
Associated Press
9:52 PM CDT, July 9, 2008
WISCONSIN RAPIDS, Wis. - Two young men who went missing in northern Wisconsin were abducted by another man, chained up at his rural house and sexually assaulted before one managed to escape and get help, according to court documents filed Wednesday.
Edward Lanphear, 46, of the town of Saratoga was ordered held on $1 million bond despite his lawyer's statement that he disputes the allegations. No formal charges have been filed.
Wood County District Attorney Todd Wolf requested cash bond of at least $500,000, citing the alleged treatment of the two men.
Those allegations are included in affidavits filed by sheriff's investigators asking a court commissioner to find probable cause to support Lanphear's arrest.
According to the documents, Lanphear abducted a 23-year-old town of Grand Rapids man early Saturday morning.
The Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune reported the man disappeared after telling friends he was going to walk home from Fourth of July fireworks in Wisconsin Rapids.
An affidavit says Lanphear was driving the man home when he pulled over near the man's house, told him he was a police officer and handcuffed him.
When one of the handcuffs became loose, Lanphear hit the man in the head and knocked him out, the affidavit says, and when the man came to he was chained up in Lanphear's basement.
The affidavit says Lanphear used a knife to cut off the man's clothing and sexually assaulted him at least three times while he was restrained.
Lanphear attached a string to a shotgun and connected the string to the man's chains, warning him if he moved he wouldn't like it because the string would tighten and the shotgun would shoot him, the affidavit says, and Lanphear then left him on the floor, which was covered in plastic.
Another affidavit states that sometime Sunday or Monday a 21-year-old man got drunk at a Wisconsin Rapids bar, passed out in his car and when he woke up he was naked and hanging in Lanphear's garage by locked chains.
He told authorities Lanphear hit him with a metal pipe and sexually assaulted him. During his captivity his hands were bound by chains and flex cuffs and he was blindfolded, the affidavit says.
The man somehow escaped and went to a house across the street still wearing chains, and the people there called police. Officers who went to the scene also found the 23-year-old in the basement.
The affidavits say the 23-year-old man was held from Saturday until Tuesday. He was taken to Riverview Hospital, where he was treated for his injuries. The affidavits don't give any information about medical treatment of the other man.
The 21-year-old man identified his captor, saying Lanphear frequented the same Wisconsin Rapids bar.
Lanphear told investigators he knew what he did was wrong, according to the documents.
But defense lawyer Gary Kryshak disputed the allegations while arguing against the high bond, saying his client isn't a flight risk.
"First and foremost, these are nothing more than allegations that we dispute formally," Kryshak said. "They better have more than a couple of statements that they can't prove."
He waived Lanphear's right to have his bond reviewed in 48 hours and asked that the criminal complaint, with formal charges, be filed by Monday.
Wolf said he might not have the complaint ready then. A status conference was set Friday.
The Associated Press identified the 23-year-old man in a story on the case before the sexual assault allegations were made but is no longer doing so because it does not generally identify people who are alleged victims of sexual assault.
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And that defense attorney has got to be kidding. Is he living in lala land? LE found one the of the guys still tied up in the basement and the other went to a neighbor still in chains for pete sake. 
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