'I didn't want to die,' accuser testifies at Victor Pena kidnapping and rape trial

BOSTON - The woman who said she was kidnapped and raped by Victor Pena after leaving a Boston bar in 2019 took the stand at his trial Wednesday.

The woman was 23 years old in January 2019 when she went missing after leaving Hennessy's bar near Quincy Market. Pena was seen on surveillance images from Congress Street with his arm around her a short time later. She was found alive in Pena's Charlestown apartment three days after she went missing. Court documents said he fed her just canned pineapple and whiskey during those three days.

On the stand in Suffolk Superior Court Wednesday, she recounted in graphic detail how she was allegedly kidnapped, raped and held hostage. Pena was not in court, but listened in on a live video feed remotely.

The alleged victim told jurors about the night she went missing, saying she had gone to a house party, then to Hennessey's bar. She described herself as "tipsy" at the time after having a few drinks. Her last memory of that night was dancing in the bar.

The next thing she said she remembered was waking up naked on a bed in a room she did not know the next morning.

"I tried to get up and get out," she told the court, but "a man's arm came over and stopped me."

She told jurors Pena threatened to kill her multiple times Then she said he raped her.

"I didn't want to die, so I just let him," she testified.

The woman said Pena told her he rescued her the night before, saved her from getting frostbite and talked about wanting to have a family together.

At one point, the alleged victim told jurors she tried to get into her bag and grab her keys, but Pena saw her, threatened her again, then raped her again.

A ping from her cell phone and surveillance video led police to Pena's apartment in Charlestown where they found her three days after she was reported missing.