Four are charged in tire iron assault in Clay County motel room

Clay County authorities have charged four people in the kidnapping and assault of a woman for allegedly tying her to a motel chair with duct tape, shaving her head and eyebrows, and punching her in the face.

The defendants, all Kansas City residents, are identified as Brooke E. Ludwig, 19, Brandon K. Oliver, 25, Joseph W. Hunter, 18, and MacKenzie K. Bristow, 17. Each was charged with robbery, assault, armed criminal action and kidnapping in an assault that happened Sunday inside the Motel 6 in Randolph.

Investigators later recovered a video recording of the assault.

According to court records, the victim said she went to the motel to meet some friends. Once there, the victim and Ludwig went outside to retrieve a jack and a tire iron from the trunk of a car.

When they walked back into the motel room, Ludwig and Bristow attacked the victim, striking her in the face and on the back of her head with an item that resembled a large railroad nail.

Ludwig threatened the woman and made her sit in a chair. They then used duct tape to tie her legs to the chair. They tied the woman’s hands behind her back with a bandanna and duct tape. A sock was stuffed in her mouth and duct tape placed over it.

Ludwig and Bristow each hit the victim’s legs with the tire iron and the large nail. Ludwig put the ashes from a lit cigarette on the victim’s head.

The two shaved the woman’s head and eyebrows. They placed a dark hooded sweatshirt on the woman’s head and threatened to kill her if she tried to run away. They drove the victim to 18th Street and Grand Boulevard in Kansas City, where they released her.

The woman went into a bar and asked for help.

She was treated at a hospital for lacerations on the back of her head and bruises on her legs, arms, hands, neck and back.

This story was originally published July 20, 2016 at 1:38 PM with the headline "Four are charged in tire iron assault in Clay County motel room."