Four charged in woman’s beating

WORCESTER — Four Worcester-area women are behind bars on kidnapping and assault charges after police say they lured a woman to a suspected drug den where they beat her with a golf club, cut her hair, ducttaped her hands and feet, burned her with a lit cigarette and stuffed her in a dog cage.

Lillian Salgado, 40, Jessica Moody, 30, and Shayna Alexander, 41, all of Worcester, and Mariah Murphy, 21, of Charlton, were all ordered held without bail at their arraignment yesterday in Worcester District Court on charges of kidnapping and three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, according to a spokesman for Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early’s office.

Police said members of the Worcester Police Department’s Vice Unit responded to an apartment on Mount Pleasant Street Wednesday after receiving a tip that a woman was being beaten and held against her will inside. When the officers’ knocks on the door weren’t answered, police said the cops forced their way inside and found “several people attempting to hide in various areas within the apartment” and a 35-year-old woman whose face was “swollen and bleeding.”

After securing the apartment, where officers found discarded needles, a baggie of crack and crack pipes littered on the floor, the victim told officers she went to the address about 1 p.m. after being told that Salgado wanted to talk to her, according to police.

The victim said she was attacked as soon as she walked in and was punched and kicked in the face, hit in the head with a golf club, tied up with tape and forced into a dog cage, police said. She also told officers the women burned her with a lit cigarette and cut her hair, according to police, who said she was later treated and released from a nearby hospital.