SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (WXYZ) — Family and friends wanted Kaila McCleary to get out and meet people. But no one could ever have imagined the man she met on a dating app would come close to taking her life, holding her captive, and assaulting her, repeatedly.
"After a while, I didn't know if I was going to live, honestly," McCleary told 7 News about the ordeal that lasted 28 days.
Trevor Double, 48, is now serving 40 to 60 years for the crimes he committed against McCleary including assault, unlawful imprisonment, and torture.
"Each day was more severe," she said. "Each time he beat me was more intense. The weapons started getting bigger and heavier."
McCleary said her first time meeting Double in person, she realized he was not the man he represented himself to be on the app. His pictures had to be about 20 years old, which would explain why he resisted doing a video chat with her.
"He also told me that he was just a few years older than me," said McCleary, who is in her twenties. "When I actually met him, he was old enough to be my father."
McCleary said she told Double, who she later discovered had also given her a fake name, she made it clear that she just wanted to be friends and she thought he understood that.
Then a few days later, Double shows up at McCleary's home in Battle Creek, unannounced, and invites her to breakfast. In an effort to just be kind, she obliged. But that's when the atrocities began.
Double took McCleary to his home in Michigan's Bangor Township where, for 28 days, she was the target of daily beatings.
"The beatings started pretty much the same day that he picked me up. And that continued until the day that I was rescued," she said.
One day, when Double was smacking McCleary with a hatchet, the blade sliced a gash in her leg.
She began trying to convince him that she needed medical treatment. But she said Double just kept pacing around his home, which had become her prison, saying he couldn't let her go because she'd report him to authorities.
McCleary, desperate to see her son again, continued to plead with Double to take her to a hospital. He eventually did.
It was at the hospital that McCleary was able to alert the medical staff that the man who dropped her off was the one who caused all of her injuries and had been holding her captive.
Double was later arrested.
McCleary survived but in 2019, Kevin Bacon was murdered by the man he met on a dating app.
Bacon's mutilated body was found in the rural Michigan home of Mark Latunski. Latunski is serving life in prison after being convicted of first-degree premeditated murder and mutilation of a corpse.
Then in 2020, in a motel in Detroit, Bashar Kallabat was killed by Jimmy Pickett, whom he also met online.
Pickett was convicted of second-degree murder and received a sentence of 45 to 60 years in prison.
But law enforcement agencies see many cases involving the dangers of dating apps that don't rise to violence as predators seek out people desperate to be in love with the person they think they're communicating with.
"We've seen a lot of fraud where people have been out thousands and thousands of dollars, even up to their life savings, because they think they've met their soulmate," said Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard.
Bouchard said to watch for red flags including the person asking for money so they can come see you or a person refusing to video chat with you.
"Meet in public. Don't meet in their car. Don't meet in a parking lot. Meet in a public venue that you approach all on your own," Bouchard said. "Maybe have a second date, again, meet in public. Do these things to get a real sense of the person before you ever find yourself alone in private."
The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), an anti-sexual violence organization, offers the following examples of ways a scammer may try to manipulate a person.
- Asks for financial assistance in any way, often because of a sudden personal crisis
- Claims to be from the United States but is currently living, working, or traveling abroad
- Claims to be recently widowed with children
- Disappears suddenly from the site then reappears under a different name
- Gives vague answers to specific questions
- Overly complimentary and romantic too early in your communication
- Pressures you to provide your phone number or talk outside the dating app or site
- Requests your home or work address under the guise of sending flowers or gifts
- Tells inconsistent or grandiose stories
- Uses disjointed language and grammar, but has a high level of education
Bouchard and McCleary both encourage people to use public record sites where you can even do your own background search on a person.
Had Trevor Double given McCleary his real name, she may have seen that he was charged with murder for a killing in 2002.
Double served several years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
"If I can do anything to save the life of another young woman by sharing my story, then I'm happy to put it out there," McCleary said, adding what she calls her biggest pointer. "Don't ever give anybody your personal information, your address, or anything like that because they might just show up at your house."
