Police: Man held, beat Whatcom woman for 2 days

BELLINGHAM — A Whatcom County man lured a woman to his home, locked her in a closet and beat her for two days with a baseball bat, according to the county sheriff’s office.

Robert Dean McGlothern, 30, asked the woman to come over to his apartment, a shop building, under the guise of helping him catch some loose chickens late in the evening Tuesday, Oct. 20, said Whatcom County Undersheriff Jeff Parks.

Once she got there the 30-year-old woman — who had known McGlothern for about two years — was repeatedly assaulted and he locked her in a closet, Parks said. She escaped, badly beaten, two days later.

The woman suffered serious injuries and bruises to her head, face, torso, arms and hands. She was taken to the hospital but is expected to survive.

A major police response blocked off streets near McGlothern’s home from Thursday evening until around 3 a.m. Friday, when the sheriff’s SWAT team broke into the house and found McGlothern hiding in a meat locker that had been converted into a bedroom, Parks said.

“It is not known at this time the reason or motive for this heinous assault on the victim,” Parks wrote in a press release.

A loaded rifle and a loaded shotgun were recovered from the home.

McGlothern faces charges of assault in the first degree and kidnapping in the first degree.