Peter Anthony McGuire via the Chino Hills Police Department.
Disturbing new details have emerged in the case of a California man who accused of holding a woman captive in his home for nearly six months, allegedly torturing, raping, and disfiguring her in “sadistic” fashion.
Authorities have confirmed that police were called at least seven times to the home of the suspect, 59-year-old Peter Anthony McGuire, who previously worked as a police officer in Los Angeles County.
McGuire began working as an officer with the Huntington Park Police Department in 1986 before he was terminated in 1987, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office confirmed to Law&Crime on Thursday. He then worked for the now-defunct Hawaiian Gardens Police Department from 1995 to 1997.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department told Law&Crime it has not confirmed whether McGuire previously worked in law enforcement, but it noted that he does have two active business licenses — one as a private investigator and another as a private patrol operator.
Deputies with the Chino Hills Police Department at approximately 7:21 p.m. on June 9 responded to a location in Alterra Park regarding a possible kidnapping victim, as Law&Crime previously reported. The victim, a 22-year-old woman, told deputies arriving at the scene that she had just escaped after being held against her will at McGuire’s home for several months.
“While being held against her will, McGuire tortured, physically assaulted, and raped the victim,” the release states. “The victim escaped from McGuire’s residence minutes prior to speaking with deputies. The victim had visible injuries consistent with the allegations made.”
Investigators said they tracked McGuire down at a home in Placentia two days later and took him into custody after a brief standoff.
The victim reportedly told police that she had initially moved into McGuire’s house voluntarily. When she decided to move out a few months later, McGuire allegedly refused to let her leave.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Rancho Cucamonga District Court, McGuire inflicted “great bodily injury” on the victim “with the intent to cause cruel and extreme pain and suffering for the purpose of revenge, extortion, persuasion and for a sadistic purpose.” The complaint further states that McGuire did “unlawfully and maliciously deprive [the victim] of a member of the body and did disable, disfigure and render it useless.”
Specifically, authorities say McGuire “did cut and disable the tongue, and put out an eye and slit the nose, ear and lip of [the victim].”
In another disturbing twist, a person who lives in McGuire’s cul-de-sac reportedly told the U.S. Sun that neighbors had called the Chino Hills Police Department “seven or eight times” and reported hearing “screams” and “banging on the wall” coming from McGuire’s home.
The sheriff’s office confirmed the Sun’s reporting Thursday afternoon.
“As for calls about domestic disturbances, there have been 7 or 8 calls for service from nearby neighbors since the beginning of the year,” the sheriff’s office told Law&Crime. “A deputy responded to each of the calls and no disturbance was ever substantiated. The house was quiet and no one answered the door during each of the calls.”
While the DA’s office did not provide details surrounding the circumstances of McGuire’s departures from his policing jobs, Officer Peter McGuire was placed on administrative leave and later fired from the Huntington Park Police Department in December 1987 for his involvement in arresting a man who died while being taken into custody, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times.
Then-Officer McGuire and another officer on Sept. 15. 1987 reportedly went to the home of a woman who claimed her boyfriend was abusive. When the officers went to the home to help the woman remove her belongings, they reportedly said that Acacio Ramirez went after the woman, so they placed him under arrest. Ramirez died at the hospital two hours later, however, from what the L.A. County Medical Examiner-Coroner reportedly determined was “blunt force body trauma.”
McGuire last week entered a plea of not guilty to all of the charges he faces. He is currently being held at the West Valley Detention Center without bond.
[Image via Chino Hills Police]