Details are emerging this morning of a frightening tale of abuse and captivity involving an elderly veteran in Highlands, New York.
The US Marine Corps vet was held hostage for years in a squalid motel room where his captor allegedly abused him.
On Tuesday night, police surrounded the Orange County motel room, where McClellan was being held against his will. The captor had apparently targeted the 86-year-old vet, so he could cash his Social Security and pension checks and use his food stamps.
A video obtained by ABC 7, shows 35-year-old Perry Cogliano battering McClellan with a stick- a scene neighbors described seeing many times before, when witnessing moments between the vet and Cogliano.
“The guy who was arrested who lived next door, he was giving him just one bowl of cereal a day, he would stick him back in the room with a stick, wasn’t bathing him, the old guy would just be walking around here naked, just terrible,” one neighbor said.
The chief of Highland Police told the local ABC station that in some ways McClellan was the “perfect victim.” He was the recipient of a ‘tremendous amount of money on a monthly basis’ and was in advanced-stage dementia. McClellan apparently thought he was in the motel room for four days when he was actually there at least four years, police said.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have any known family members or friends who could protect him from someone like this.
McClellan will be provided a new home by adult services and checked out at a local hospital to see if he suffered any further physical injuries.
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