A Missouri man accused of kidnapping a woman and holding her hostage in his basement until she escaped in October 2022 faces an additional charge related to the murder of a woman whose skeletal remains were found last year in a barrel in a river.
At a news conference Tuesday, prosecutors announced that Timothy Haslett Jr., 41, has been also charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jaynie Crosdale.
Haslett was previously charged with first-degree rape, sodomy, kidnapping, assault and endangering a child after the unnamed woman he allegedly held hostage escaped from his basement. Haslett remains in custody, and his bond was set at $5 million.
Investigators believe Crosdale, who is Black, was killed between June 6, 2022, and Oct. 7, 2022, an indictment states. Photos taken from a device belonging to Haslett showed Crosdale inside the basement of his Excelsior Springs home, according to Clay County Prosecutor Zachary Thompson.
The blue barrel Crosdale's remains were found in also matched other barrels at Haslett's home, the prosecutor said.
Excelsior Springs police publicly connected Crosdale to the escapee's case in January 2023, writing in a Facebook post that they needed help finding her and believed she was a potential witness who had information about the kidnapping investigation. Crosdale's remains were discovered last July, when kayakers found her body in a barrel in the Missouri River.
Crosdale's family said it was a "bittersweet moment that prosecutors have finally filed charges."
"What happened to her was unfair," her family said in a statement. "She was taken from her loved ones way too soon."
They said Crosdale was always "very popular" and "did not have a judgmental bone in her body."
"She never met a stranger. All in all, just a nice, kind-hearted person. She was loved by anyone she met," her family said. "This was hurtful for all of us."
A probable cause statement alleges that Haslett told the unidentified woman who escaped from his basement that two other victims "didn't make it." Haslett allegedly said that one woman had been killed with a gas mask and the other "died by electrocution" during a sex act, the probable cause states.
The surviving victim said Haslett threatened to suffocate her and put her in a barrel "like the rest of them" if she did not listen to him, the statement alleges.
Thompson would not say at this time if Haslett is suspected of other homicides.
"The charges we have right now for the murder of Jaynie Crosdale represent all available charges that is possible considering the facts and evidence that we have," he said.
Haslett has been in jail since October 2022. His attorney declined to comment.
Haslett, who is white, posted comments to Facebook in 2014 and 2020 in which he called for the return of “severe” punishment for criminals, including chain gangs, and said he supported “racist, oppressive” policing of Black people.
The probable case statement, dated July 3, 2024, provides further details on what Thompson called the "brutal and barbaric" torture of the surviving victim.
The woman, who is Black, was wearing a trash bag, latex lingerie, a metal dog collar with a padlock around her neck and duct tape when she was found, the document states. She said she had been walking in Kansas City, Missouri, in September 2022 when Haslett approached her and offered her $350 to go to his house.
During the car ride, the woman said Haslett pulled a gun on her, took her cellphones and forced her to take drugs that caused her to fall asleep, according to the probable cause statement.
She said he kept locked restraints on her wrists and ankles and secured her in a "dungeon" in his basement, it alleges. The dungeon had cameras and "things that could be used for torture," the document states.
The woman told authorities that she was choked, whipped and sexually assaulted on a daily basis, according to the probable cause statement. She was fed either peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or ham sandwiches once a day, it says.
Haslett allegedly dressed in women's lingerie during the assaults and would call the woman his "sex slave," the document says.
She was able to escape and run to neighbors for help after Haslett left the home to drop his young son off at school, according to the probable cause. The woman said she slipped her arms out of the chains, pulled a keypad off the wall and heard the basement door unlock.