Eugene Tudela Huffman’s alleged rape and assault victim died hours before police arrested him for the rape-assault charges.
Kandit spoke with two of the victim’s sisters, who confirmed she was found dead inside Mr. Huffman’s home around 5:30 am August 6. According to one of her sisters, she was told by police that Mr. Huffman’s son made the 911 call reporting her sister’s death when he found her.
Neither police nor hospital officials have released the victim’s cause of death to the sisters or to her mother.
She was 33 years old and was not known to have any physical sickness, her sisters confirmed. She is survived by two minor children.
Mr. Huffman has at least four prior violent crime cases – three of which he already has been convicted of. Hours after the victim in the current case had died, police arrested him on allegations he enslaved the woman over three days in early June, beat her several times, pulled her front tooth out with pliers, and raped her with a toilet plunger.
Mr. Huffman, who in 2021 was arrested on allegations he assaulted another woman known to him with a machete, was hailed as a hero last year after he removed an infant from an allegedly abusive home situation and brought the baby to a hospital. The year before that, however, Mr. Huffman was arrested on family violence and advanced stalking charges stemming from an alleged choking incident. In that case, according to the magistrates report, Mr. Huffman also used pliers. In that incident it was allegedly to grab the wrist of the woman trying to flee from his assault.
According to the charging document in the new case, a Guam Regional Medical City doctor on June 5 called police after learning a female patient – the victim in this case – “had been badly beaten and may have been sexually assaulted.”
When police interviewed the woman at GRMC, she told officers “she was tortured and beaten badly,” from Sunday, June 2 through Tuesday, June 4 at Mr. Huffman’s Dededo home after he allegedly detained her there. Her illegal detention followed her release from Guam Memorial Hospital, where she was receiving medical treatment, on June 1.
“During the three days, victim could recall being hit in the head with a belt buckle, having her front tooth pulled out with pliers, and being penetrated twice with a toilet plunger,” according to the magistrate’s complaint against Mr. Huffman in the latest case.
Police were unable to apprehend Mr. Huffman until August 6, when police visited his residence regarding “an expired person complaint.” The charging document did not go into any further detail about the expired person, however a comment on Kandit’s Wednesday story about the arrest from the victim’s sister hinted at her death.
During the August 6 visit, police recognized him as the suspect in the June incident, read him his rights, and proceeded with an interview of Mr. Huffman, according to the complaint.
“I beat her up,” the complaint states Mr. Huffman told police about the June victim. While he admitted to assaulting the woman, he denied using a plunger to rape her. The charging document made no mention of the victim’s death that same morning.
The complaint states that Mr. Huffman resisted arrest and that police had to use a taser to subdue him.
He was charged in the Superior Court of Guam with first degree criminal sexual conduct, aggravated assault, family violence, and felonious restraint, all as felonies.
According to one of the victim’s sisters, even the Office of the Attorney General as late as yesterday was unaware the victim had died. An official from the OAG’s victim’s advocate office called one of the victim’s sisters to reach the victim and notify her that Mr. Huffman had been arrested on the charges stemming from the June incident.
Guam Police Department spokeswoman Berlyn Savella has been unable to provide confirmation of the victim’s death or any detail surrounding this case. Ms. Savella said she sent Kandit’s inquiry up her chain of command and is waiting for details she can release to the media.