Pair arrested in kidnapping, forced servitude case

Two people arrested Tuesday are accused of kidnapping a woman in Las Vegas in March and holding her hostage in a Nye County residence where authorities say she was forced to perform manual labor.

The Nye County Sheriff’s Office issued a statement Tuesday morning saying they rescued the woman on Jan. 1 from an undisclosed location in the county. Authorities said a search for two suspects in the case, Keith Holman, 49, and Kristin Pfaff, 36, both of Pahrump, resulted in their arrest in Henderson on Tuesday.

The Sheriff’s Office said the female victim vanished from Las Vegas in the spring. Authorities suspected she might be in Pahrump, but an investigation by the Metropolitan Police Department and Nye County investigators was unable to locate her.

“Leads to the victim’s location were exhausted,” the Sheriff’s Office said.

On Friday, authorities received a phone call from the woman’s mother, saying her daughter was messaging her on Facebook.

“This was the first time anyone had heard from the victim since she went missing in Las Vegas in March of 2020,” the statement said. “While communicating through Facebook, the victim was able to describe the residence in which she was being held and Nye County sheriff’s deputies and detectives began searching that area.”

Police found the woman inside the home, and she told authorities she wasn’t allowed to leave.

“In March of 2020 the victim was kidnapped by Keith Holman and Kristin Pfaff and brought to Pahrump where she remained concealed and confined for the next nine months,” the statement said. “During her confinement the victim was forced to perform manual labor. If she refused she was battered. The suspects frequently traveled from Las Vegas to Pahrump and would leave the victim locked in the residence with little food for days at a time.

“The building where the victim was confined was secured with bars on the windows and steel doors and barricades blocking the doors,” the Sheriff’s Office said. “The building was surrounded by cameras and motion detectors.”

Authorities said Holman and Pfaff were arrested Tuesday afternoon by Henderson police officers and were expected to be transported to the Nye County Detention Center in Pahrump for booking. Further details on the circumstances of the arrests were not immediately released.

The pair face charges of second-degree kidnapping, false imprisonment, involuntary servitude and conspiracy, the statement said.

Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.