JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The daughters of a woman found beaten and bruised Sunday in front of a storage unit in the Sunbeam area of Southside are thankful their mom is still alive.
They said she was held captive for two days and narrowly escaped when the man she said was keeping her fell asleep.
Haywood West (pictured at bottom of story), 38, was arrested and charged with felony battery causing great bodily harm, permanent disability or disfigurement, and false imprisonment.
Two strangers found the woman on the side of the road, stumbling toward their car and called 911.
"For the people who stopped for my mother, I would love to meet them and say thank you so much for helping my mom, 'cause she probably wouldn't have survived," one daughter said.
The victim's daughters said they're disgusted and hurt by what their mom said happened to her over the weekend. Graphic images show how badly she was beaten.
Witness Justin Dhaemers and his girlfriend were on their way to pick up her daughter when they passed by the Atlantic Self Storage on Shad Road, just off Philips Highway. What they picked up instead was shocking.
"We drove by the storage unit and observed what we thought was a storage unit," Dhaemers said. "We decided to turn around. We were wrong. She was a badly beaten lady, very unrecognizable, like out of a horror story. It was unbelievable."
Dhaemers said the woman was naked, bruised and bleeding. He said he called 911 and waited with her until police arrived.
The woman was taken to UF Health Jacksonville. Her daughters, Melissa and Mandy, didn't get to see their mom until four hours later. They said they walked into the hospital room to see she had bite marks and bruises.
"It was not like my mother was laying there. It was like something off TV or something," Mandy said. "It wasn't like her at all. Her face was basically mangled and beaten in."
Mandy and Melissa said their mom and West were friends, but they said she had no clue what she was walking into.
"She made a comment to me a couple times that she wished they would have just killed her. That's how bad it was," Melissa said.
Mandy and Melissa said there was another person involved, but no other arrests have been made yet.
The daughters said doctors think their mom will be blind. She's supposed to have surgery by Tuesday.