Charlotte Teen Held Captive Was Malnourished

CHARLOTTE, NC -- Hailey Burns, a Charlotte teenager who was rescued earlier this week in an Atlanta suburb after being held captive for more than a year, was locked in an upstairs bedroom and malnourished when federal law enforcement officers found her, according to reports.

Burns’ captor, Michael Ren Wysoloski, 31, has been arrested and charged with false imprisonment, sodomy/aggravated sodomy, interference with custody and cruelty to children involving first-degree deprivation.

Wysoloski forced Burns to keep a food journal and would prevent her from eating meals if she ate more calories than he wanted, The Charlotte Observer reported. He would also coerce her to perform sex acts by withholding food, the newspaper said.(Sign up for our free daily newsletters and Breaking News Alerts for the Charlotte Patch. iPhone users can download the Patch app in the App Store. Plus, like Charlotte Patch on Facebook.)

Hailey Burns, now 17, was rescued by FBI agents June 24. She had not been seen by her family in more than a year after she left her Baldwin Hall Drive home in Charlotte in the early morning hours of May 23, 2016. She took few belongings with her and did not take any of the medication she needed for several medical conditions, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in May when it offered a $15,000 reward for leads.

Burns’ parents told a Charlotte news station in May that one of their daughter’s classmates told them that she “had been talking to a 30-year-old man for over six months,” WSOC reported.

The Charlotte teen was located after she friended a woman from Romania online and sent her a photo from the window of the home she was being held in, in Duluth, Ga., northeast of Atlanta, according to The Charlotte Observer. The woman in Romania contacted Burns’ parents, and within five hours the teen was freed, the newspaper reported.

Photo via FBI