SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Snow College student Madelyn Allen is home after she disappeared for nearly a week, following a meeting with a man she met online.
The 19-year-old was found on Dec. 18 in Wayne County, Utah, almost 90 miles from where she was last seen leaving her dorm.
Allen was found in the home of 39-year-old Brent Brown, who was taken into custody and charged with obstruction of justice, aggravated kidnapping and rape, Sanpete County Attorney Kevin L. Daniels told PEOPLE.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Allen and Brown met in an online chat group and arranged to meet in person. After they met up, however, Brown allegedly took Allen’s phone and only allowed her to text her family once.
Court documents obtained by the Salt Lake Tribune state that Brown tied Allen up while he left for work and threatened her by “saying if she left or told anyone about him, he would come after her family and sister.”
According to ABC4, law enforcement was able to track Allen’s phone to the city of Loa where they searched door-to-door before spotting a “person with light-colored hair and a small build” through the window of a house on Main Street.
Police knocked on the door and Brown answered the door, stating that he was alone in the home. He refused entry to police, who returned with a search warrant before discovering Allen in a basement coal room, naked and covered in coal, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
Allen is now reunited with her family and Brown has been arrested.