RivCo man accused of kidnapping, torturing two women in ‘house of horrors’

Report by Nicole Comstock, KCBS

Deputies arrest a man for allegedly running a house of horrors – keeping two women against their will and torturing them. Detectives fear there may be more victims

"I grew up with him you know, I love him. It's crazy to see him like this," said Mark Glasser referring to the suspect, his cousin Gilbert Puga.

Puga was arrested Sunday after deputies say he held two women against their will inside a home in Moreno Valley and tortured them. Jail records indicate that he assaulted them with a stun gun.

"He just recently got out of the mental institution here in Riverside," Glasser said.

He says his cousin has been in and out of treatment for bipolar depression and schizophrenia for decades. That he's also addicted to meth.

And that several recent deaths in the family sent him spiraling out of control.

Glasser says he's sorry for whatever the women went through and wants the public to know he's tried to get Puga help many times.

"So he's never really healed but they say he is and they let him back out on the streets and it's almost like, you cut a lion loose, what is he gonna do? He's gonna get hungry and he's gonna bite somebody. A lion belongs in the zoo," Glasser said.

The Riverside County Sheriff's Office says the two women Puga victimized were eventually able to escape his home.

"I can only imagine the mental trauma they sustained by being held captive in someone's home and tortured," said RSO Sergeant Deirdre Vickers.

But Vickers says it was Puga who initially called 9-1-1, reporting a burglary at his home. A story that turned out to be false, she says.

Neighbors reported hearing the women screaming for help. Puga was later arrested in Hemet and charged with multiple felonies including flase imprisonment and torture.

"Investigators believe there may be additional victims, they're asking anyone with info to
contact the MoVal [Moreno Valley] Sheriff's Station," Vickers said.

Puga may have picked women up, his cousin says, in his Infiniti SUV.

Puga is being held on $10,000 bail at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside. He was charged earlier this week with Two counts of false imprisonment, two counts of assault with a stun gun and one count of being a felon in possession of a weapon and possession of drug paraphernalia. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.

He is scheduled to appear in court again on May 25 for a Felony Settlement Conference.